16 BENGAL PLANTS. 
are much affected by the tides. This dense forest forms the com- 
Pact and natural Sundribun province, filled with species to be met 
nowhere else in our area save along the southern coast of Chitta- 
Roxburgh, Wallich, Hooker, Thomson, Anderson, Kurz, Gamble, 
Clarke, have all penetrated the tract. It is, however, to Heinig 
that we are chiefly indebted for the more complete exploration of 
this most interesting region ; his collections, assiduously and care- 
fully made during a succession of seasons, have converted what ten 
years ago was one of the least known portions of Bengal into a 
tract almost as thoroughly investigated as the rice-plain itself. 
Searcely less necessary and natural is the separation of Eastern 
t there are two dominant and, as it happens, v 
Separate treatment essential. One of these features is the vege- 
tation of the Jhils, those inland sheets of fresh-water that are as 
characteristic of the southern portion of East Bengal as their salt- 
Marshes and tidal creeks are of the Sundribuns. The other is 
Supplied by the curious and distinctive vegetation of the laterite 
Islets that crop through the alluvium in the Mymensingh district 
of the Dacea division. Our acquaintance with the flora of the 
Jhils is derived from the labours of Roxburgh, Griffith, Hooker, 
Clarke, and others; what we know of the Madhopur jungles in 
Mymensingh we owe entirely to Clarke. Much has yet to be done 
towards completely investigating these Mymensingh jungles, which 
M many ways are the most interesting feature of the Lower Gan- 
Setic Plain. 
seful, too, is the recognition apart of North Bengal—the 
‘ountry that lies from west to east between the Kosi and the 
Brahmaputra, from south to north between the Ganges and the 
lower spurs of the Himalaya. Towards the south and south-east, 
no doubt, this province repeats the essential features of the alluvial 
Plain of Central and Eastern Bengal, while further to the north it 
7S no more than an eastward continuation of the features exhibited 
by Tirhut. Even here, however, amid much agreement there is 
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