INTKODUCTOllY ESSAV. 91 



sketch of the vegetation of India, and of the relation which 

 the Botany of its different great divisions bears to that of 

 neighbouring or distant countries. These remarks, from the 

 incompleteness of the data at our disposal, must necessarily 

 be vague, and may be viewed rather as indications of results 

 likely to be obtained than as absolutely ascertained facts. 



We have already said that all the main elements of the 

 Indian Flora exist in surrounding countries, and to this is to 

 be attributed one of the most remarkable botanical features 

 of so extensive an area, namely, the very limited number of 

 peculiar families that are largely represented in it. Thus, 

 Aurantiacete, Dipteraceee, Balsaminem, Ebenaceoe, JasminecB, 

 and Cyrtandraceo! are the only Orders which are largely de- 

 veloped in India, and sparingly elsewhere ; and of these, few 

 contain one hundred Indian species. In this respect the 

 Indian Flora contrasts remarkably with that of Australia, 

 South Africa, or South America, or even with Europe, North 

 Asia, and North America. On the other hand, India contains 

 representatives of almost every natural family on the globe, a 

 very few small South American, Australian, and South African 

 Orders being the chief exceptions; and it contains a more 

 general and complete illustration of the genera of other parts 

 of the world than any other country whatsoever, of equal or 

 even of considerably larger extent. It is hence not surpris- 

 ing that some of the large cosmopolitan families are perhaps 

 less universally preponderant in India than in most other 

 continents, Composite especially being deficient, as are Gra- 

 minete and CyperacecR in some regions, Leguminosce, Labiatae, 

 and Ferns in others, whilst Euphorbiacete and Scrophularia- 

 cecB are universally present, and Orchidece appear to form a 

 larger proportion of the Flora of India than of any equally ex- 

 tensive country. 



We assume the total number of Indian species included in 

 the limits of our Flora, to be from 12-15,000, but whether 

 this estimate is to be regarded as large or small, compara- 

 tively with other parts of the globe, we are not prepared to 



