229 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
plants from widely different bordering countries, notably of Chinese 
and Malayan on the east and so uth; of Oriental,* European, and 
African on the west; and of Tibetan and Siberian on the north. 
Whether India is richer i in number of genera and | species than any 
other area on the — ofe it is certainly 
far poorer in endem ¢ genera _ species than many others, espe- 
cially China, Beers and Sou 
Of the elements of the aie es the Malayan is the dominant, 
but, until the floras of Sumatra, Tonkin, and South China are better 
The Tibetan and Siberian elements, which include an arctic, are a 
but confined to the alpine regions of the Himalaya. Lastly, 
Chinese and Japanese floras are strongly represented throughout 
the temperate Himalaya, and in Burma. 
f the natural orders of flowering plants, pong and their allies 
comprised in the flora of British India, not o r to it; 
and if the genera common to it and to one or masts ‘of the adjacent 
remain, and suc 
s are endemic are local, and, with few exceptions, are restricted to 
one or he species.t It may hence be affirmed that in a large sense 
there is no Indian flora proper. 
The British Oe 0 i though so various as to its swtatay 
presents few anomalies eg go ar point of v 1e 
most remark able frida ‘of such anomalies are the es in 
it of one or a few species of what are very large and all but endemic 
genera in Australia—namely, Backia, um, Melaleuca 
Leucopogon, Stylidium, Helen and Casuari Other 2 Oe - 
baphus himalaicus, the solitary extra- Farsi Se of es ai 
Pyrularia edulis, the only congeners of which are a Javan pa 6 
* The term ‘ Oriental” is Seal eal used in a very different sense by 
botanists and zoologists. In 1755 it was adopted by Gronovius ea the title 
Flora Orientalis of his work on Pe she of om Sorant and vig otamia ; 
it i ’s great Flora of the East, from Greece to Afghan- 
istan inclusive. This seen ps vin 3 ees Baveie! w Ae r a i doolosical 
agi ** Oriental” is more synonymous with Eas 
f these rom Ae atta t the mo: ne notable one is cu of two — 
of Dipterocarpee—Doo eg — species, and Stemonoporus with fiftee 
which are both osituied to © 
} Mr. C. B. Clarke, in a ae instructive essay, ‘‘On the Botanical Sub- 
com: 
division :—(1) The Deccan or Indo-African; (2). the Malayan; (3) the Central 
Asian; (4) the European. Mr. Clarke’s sub-areas approximately correspond 
with the provinces - _ sketch. See Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany, 
vol. xxxiv. (1898), p. 
