86 FLORA INDICA. 



have had a common origin, did not the Afghanistan specimens 

 blend their characters, or show the transition between them. 



The botany of our eastern frontier is less known than that 

 of any other part of India, and, indeed, it is to it alone that 

 we look for any considerable amount of novelty ; for though 

 the upper Assam valley and Mishmi hills have been investi- 

 gated by GrifBth, and Lower and Middle Ava by Wallich, 

 their united materials are not extensive; whilst the upper 

 valley of the Irawadi, Manipui', and the other districts east 

 and south of Cachar, are v/hoUy unknown. Griffith, indeed, 

 botanized in the Hiikiim valley, but his collections from that 

 country have not hitherto been made available to botanists.. 

 The whole of the Malayan Peninsula is also included in our 

 Flora; for though the British settlements of Penang, Ma- 

 lacca, and Singapur, comprise but a small proportion of the 

 peninsula, they may be supposed to represent well the Flora 

 of so narrow a tract of land, whose climate and physical fea- 

 tures are almost uniform throughout. 



It will thus be seen that the limits of the Flora Indica ex- 

 tend from the 36th parallel of north latitude to the equator, 

 and from abovit the 63nd to the 105th degree of east longi- 

 tude ; the area of land embraced being little less than two 

 millions of square miles. This is by far the greatest tropical 

 or subtropical area that has ever been made the subject of one 

 Flora ; and at the same time it is the most varied, including 

 every climate, from the burning heat and absolute drought of 

 the deserts of Sind, to the humid jungles of the Malayan pe- 

 ninsula, and to the everlasting snows of the Himalaya. En- 

 rope, which (to the regret of every botanist) has never been 

 made the subject of one Flora, considerably exceeds India in 

 superficial area, containing three and a half millions of square 

 miles ; and it presents several geographical points which afford 

 familiar standards of comparison for distances in India. Thus, 

 the distance in latitude from Ceylon to Tibet is just that from 

 Gibraltar to the Orkneys, or from the Gulf of Finland to the 

 MortTi. Tlic t;icatest breadth of our limits in longitude is from 



