334 



I have not by me Mr. Thwaites most excellent list of the 

 Ceylon Plora : so that the above geographical table only contains 

 for Ceylon (as for the other areas) the species of which 

 examples have passed through my hands. 



The area for each individual plant is very loosely given • but 

 I believe the errors have pretty well compensated themselves in 

 the gross result. 



The richest area in Iiidia for Phamogams generally is Khasia : 

 as regards Compositee the above table shews that it is less rich 

 than the North-West and Central Himalaya : which is as it 

 should be, Compositae steadily diminishing as we proceed from 

 Kashmir to Malaya. In Miquel 178 species of Composita3 are 

 described as found in the large area included in his Dutch 

 Indies : but if those species were treated as I have treated 

 species in this Monograph, the number would be reduced fully 

 one-half. 



The poorest area appears the Gangetic Plain, affording only 

 78 species. This is as it should be : the Gangetic Plain has, 

 for a moist tropical rich country, a poverty-stricken flora. Dr. 

 T. Anderson considered that in all alluvial Bengal, a very 

 enormous square-mileage, not 600 Phamogams were to be found, 

 and of these a large number doubtfully indigenous. This 

 poverty, greater by far than that of a single English county, 

 appears less remarkable when we recollect that it results because 

 we confine our attention to one particular kind of soil. If we 

 include even a small patch of the Terai red-clay soil that in 

 many places runs out into the Bengal alluvial plain, we shall 

 at once bring in a crowd of new species. 



The enormous Peninsular area (including therein as I have 

 done above all the Vindhya and Rajmahal ranges north till they 

 fade into the Gangetic Plain) supply but few species compared 

 with the much smaller Himalayan areas. This is right : and is 

 true of Phamogams as well as of Compositse. The Peninsula 

 Flora is not a poor one, but it is (as I have already stated) a 

 very uniform one over a large area. Of the moderate number 

 of species included on it, a large percentage are obtained only 

 from the Nilgherries, Pulneys, and other mountains exceeding 

 6000 feet in elevation. 



