INTllODUCTOllY KSSAY. 85 



within the British boundaries^ besides many others whichj 

 from being in a different state, or belonging to different va- 

 rieties of others found elsewhere, are essential for the elucida- 

 tion of our Flora. For the same reasons we include the Chi- 

 nese Tibetan district of Guge, immediately north of Kumaon, 

 which has been examined by Captain E. Strachey and Mr. 

 Winterbottom, and whose Flora is identical with that of the 

 British Tibetan valleys of Piti, and of Niti (in Kumaon) . 



Nipal and Bhotan again are whoUy independent states; 

 but to exclude them would be to omit all notice of the 

 splendid labours of Wallich on the one hand (which reflect so 

 much lustre on the liberality of a former Government of 

 India), and of Griffith on the other, who alone has explored 

 Bhotan. Sikkim occupies an intermediate position between 

 Nipal and Bhotan ; a considerable part of it belongs to the 

 British, the rest is maintained by our influence and autho- 

 rity ; and the whole presents a flora which is not only the 

 best investigated of any district east of Kumaon, but unites 

 the Floras of Nipal, Bhotan, East Tibet, and the Khasia 

 mountains; being hence, in a geographico-botanical point of 

 view, one of the most important provinces in India, if not in 

 all Asia. 



Returning to the extreme west, the political boundary of 

 British India lies at no great distance beyond the Indus, but 

 does not include the mountainous regions of Afghanistan, the 

 whole of which was investigated about fifteen years ago by 

 Griffith, who accompanied the army of the Indus on its march 

 from Sind to Candahar and Cabul, and penetrated as far as 

 Bamian and Saighan, forming very large collections. These, 

 besides containing an immense number of Persian and Eu- 

 ropean plants, which find their eastern limits within the Bri- 

 tish territory, are rich in Himalayan forms which advance 

 no further west, and, ^\ hat is of still greater importance, they 

 contain many species common both to Europe and the Hima- 

 laya, but which, from presenting differences induced by local 

 causes in these two distant countries, might not be imagined to 



