( -to ) 



dasyearpa, Flacourtia sapida, and many others. These may probably be immigrants from 

 the Ava Flora, with which I am unfortunately only imperfectly acquainted. 



Besides these prevailing trees we meet locally with other trees which are peculiar, be- 

 cause they are restricted to these or similar diluvial forests, and occur nowhere in conspi- 

 cuous quantities : they are sporadic and endemic at the same time. Such are for instance An- 

 nenlca /ragranSr Tridesmis priinijlora, Ochroearpus Siamemui, Tristania Birmanica, and such 

 like. 



Most of the trees in these forests flower during the hottest time of the year, when 

 destitute of leaves, and a lovely sight it is to see the crowns of many trees at the same time 

 enveloped in red, white, and yellow blossoms, while all around is barren, and hardly a green 

 leaf is visible for miles. Of bamboos there are only teiwa (Bainbum tulda) and, chiefly in the 

 Prome district, myinwa {Bamb. stricta), but these are very common, especially along the out- 

 skirts of these forests. Of palms the only one I met with was a stemless date palm (Phwnix, 

 ncaulis) , but this is frequent enough. The heart of it is a vegetable much sought after by 

 Burmans. The shrubbery is meagre and often low, consisting chiefly of Uvaria ferruginea, 

 Thespesia Lampas, Micromelttm hirsutmn, Ochna fruticulosa, Lcea puniila, Strobilanthes phyl- 

 lostackya, glaucescens and auriculatua, Barleria cristata, Neuracanthus tetragonodachym, 

 Freinna hirta, Indigo/era atropurpurea, and Brunonis, Desmodium poli/carpnm, Flemmingia 

 aemialata and cordifolia, Bauhinia acuminata, Ixora subsessilis, Phyllodium pulchellmn, Sau- 

 ropus sp., Desmodium triqtietrum, Vcrnonia rigiop/n/lla, Inula poh/gonata &nd cappa, etc. Most 

 of these are, however, no true shrubs, but rather large perennials and sometimes annuals. 



Climbers are, as above alluded to, scanty and often resemble erect shrubs with a ten- 

 dency to climb. They are nearly all of such kinds as grow in the drier mixed forests from 

 whence they have probably intruded, without finding here a congenial substratum. Such 

 are Otosemma extensa, Zizyphm oenoplia, Colubrina asiatica, Breweria elegam ? Gocculws 

 villosus, Zehneria umbellata, Butea superba, Embelia villosa, some Ipomoeae and Argyraia, etc. 



The herbage of the ground is either scanty in the extreme, the reddish, yellowish, or 

 white soil being exposed in all directions, or more usually numerous herbs and perennials 

 in company with andropogonous grasses and sedges loosely cover the surface, without being 

 crowded, except in clayey or loamy moulds and depressions. The chief plants which are 

 nearly equally distributed all over the diluvial forests are : Sida carpinifolia and rhombi- 

 folia, and Mysurensis f , Urena lobata and speciosa, Triumfetta angulata, Nehonia origanoi- 

 des along with a very large-leaved variety, Ebenneyera Maclellandii, and dijf'usa, Hygrophila 

 mlicifolia, Barleria polytncha, Lepidagathis incurvu and mucronata, Justicia decnssata, Borreria 

 lasiocarpa, Spermacoce, Aneilema scapiflorum, Gynura siiiuata f , several terrestrial orchids, 

 as Feristylus, Microstylis, etc. Microrhynchus glaber, Ce]}halos(igma paniculatum, Exacum 

 stylosum, Canscora Sc/iultesii, Fterostigma capitatum, Limnophila conferta, Vandellia mollu- 

 ginoides, Buchnera tetrasticha and cruciata, Sopubia stricta, Aiiisomeles ovata, Leucas mol- 

 lissima, Globba expansa, ? , Crotalaria alata, acicularis, calycina and linifolia ? , Uraria 

 crinita and hamosn, Alysicarpus bupleurifolius ? , Dunharia mollis, Eriosema Chinense, Cassia 

 mimusoides, Blumea fiava, racemosa, etc. Rungia pectinata, Costus speciosus, Osbeckia Chinensis, 

 several species of Eriocaulon and Xyris, Mitrasacme Indica, Hitchenia sp., Ammannia multi- 

 , flora etc. etc. The grasses are chiefly Scleriae, Rhynchospora Wallichiana and Frescottiana 

 Lipocarpha sphacelata, Cyperus niveus, Eragrostis plumosa, Brownei, Zeylanica, etc., Haemar- 

 thria, Ophiurus, Muehlenbeckia ? , Dimeria, Antiithyria, Cymbopogon, Schizachyrium brevi- 

 folium, several species of Andropogon and Ischaemutn, Pollinia, Setaria glauca, Chrysopogon 

 Gryllus, Rottboellia, Hymenachne Indica, Fanicum angnstatum, etc. 



Of ferns may be seen Adiantum lunulatum, C/ieilanthes varians,/ariiiosa a.ndtenui/olia, 

 Nephrodium filix mas var. cochleata^ 



As we travel through these forests, we alight often upon patches of solitary plants, 

 which turn up from time to time, of such beauty or rarity,* that they richly compensate 

 a botanist for the long and hot walk he has to undertake to get at them. Here are 

 Solomonia longiciliatn, Chloranthus insignis, Neuracanthus grandiflorus and subunincrviua 

 Folygala leptalea, Eiilophia, Aneilema spectabile, etc. ; there we see a few plants of Oleandra 

 Cummmgii, a probably new and almost erect Lygodium, a hairy dull yellow Gynura, Drosera 

 peltata and Burmanni, Sonerila tenera, Blinkworthia lycioides, and others, again we come 

 through a profusion of a large new species of Knoxia, Smithia graiidis, a hairy new species of 

 Casnyta, a probably new sp. of Clausena, Linostoma Siamense, Artabotrys Kurzii or we find 

 in the vesicular holes of laterite rocks in sheltered places a curious new genus of Aroideae 

 with snow-white spathes, {Hapaline Benthamiana) or the little plants of an A riopds. 



During the hot season a number of gaudy coloured flowers spring up, making truly a 

 flower garden of the blackened burnt ground. Such are especially Scitamineae and Amaryl- 



* Similar to what we experience in wandering, for example, over the sterile and monotonous heath-lands of 

 Sontheru Havaria, etc., where wo meet at great distances here a patch of Adoui-t vemalit, there one of 

 FuUatilla, et., etc. 



