434 Capt. N. Vicary's Notes on the Botany of Sinde. 



Indian flora, flourishing between the parallels 25° and 30° N. lat., 

 or nearly equivalent to the tract between Allahabad and Hurdwar. 

 At first sight it appears strange that so many northern forms 

 should exist in Sinde in excess of those found between the same 

 parallels in India, but a slight examination of the countries form- 

 ing our northern frontier will, I think, sufficiently account for 

 it. The Himalaya mountains, the Hindoo Coosh, and probably 

 the Tukt-i-Sulleemaun range, form an impassable barrier to cer- 

 tain classes of plants, but the lower ranges of the Hala moun- 

 tains, which in many places are not more than 1500 feet above 

 the sea, offer no such obstacle ; besides this there is the coast- 

 line, which with its constantly drifting sands offers a facile mode 

 of transmission to seeds ; thus we find several Egyptian, Arabian, 

 Persian and African plants in Sinde : that they have not spread 

 into India seems also easily accounted for ; the Indian desert 

 of Jesulmeer proves in a south-eastern direction a sufficient pre- 

 ventative. The course via the banks of the Indus is to a narrow 

 extent only open to the north-east, and accordingly we find some 

 Egyptian forms extending to Delhi and its neighbourhood, as 

 has been remarked by my friend Dr. Royle in his ' Illustrations 

 of Indian Botany/ pp. 70 and 160. 



Salvadora persica, Capparis aphylla and Farsetia, are found 

 throughout Sinde; however Giseckia, so abundant near Feroze- 

 poor, is not found in Lower Sinde; Orobanche Calotropidis, 

 Edgw., is found from Umballa to Kurrachee, and is extremely 

 abundant in Lower Sinde ; the flowers of this plant are change- 

 able, being blue at first and becoming pale yellow, hence two 

 varieties have been supposed to exist. No Scitamineous or Or- 

 chideous plant exists in Sinde ; of the latter order Zeuxine is 

 sparingly found under the tamarisks, nearly as far as Subzul- 

 kote, following the course of the river. 



The coast-line alluded to above offers no obstacle to the dif- 

 fusion of plants in a southerly direction via Cutch and Goozerat 

 towards Bombay, but as yet these countries, the delta of the 

 Indus and the south-western tail of the desert are botanically 

 unknown ; in the other direction, a botanical excursion to Son- 

 meeanee Bay, or farther if possible, would serve to connect our 

 Indian flora with that of Africa, Persia and Arabia. 



I have still some curious Sinde plants of which I hope to give 

 an account hereafter. 



Subathoo, 27th September, 1847. 



