94 FLORA INDICA. 



America^ the Savannahs of North Americaj nor of those dry 

 plains studded with hundreds of species of flowering shrubs 

 and bulbous herbs, which are so characteristic of the Cape of 

 Grood Hope and of Australia. The plains of India are indeed 

 everywhere extremely poor in species^ and such as abound 

 in individuals are usually of a weedy character. The hilly 

 parts of moderate elevation again are far from presenting that 

 gorgeous display of flowers and foliage that the Brazilian 

 forests do. The gaudy Cacti, Amaryllidem, Liliacece, and Me- 

 lastomacea, amongst other Orders of that country, have no re- 

 presentatives in India similar in beauty, variety, and abund- 

 ance. In fact, there are few countries in which the vegetation 

 of the more accessible parts presents so little beauty, or such 

 short seasons of bloom. 



Maritime plants, again, are rare in India ; nor is there a 

 well-marked and generally diffused littoral Flora; such, we 

 mean, as is composed of plants that are not absolutely sea- 

 side, but which never wander many miles from the ocean. 



a. On the Distribution of Indian Plants as influenced by 

 Climate. 



From the position of India, we have seen that its climate 

 (and hence its vegetation) is more generally tropical, than the 

 latitude under which so much of it is included would alone 

 indicate. The mountains, however, when above 4-5000 feet, 

 everywhere present more or less of a temperate vegetation, 

 which becomes wholly temperate at greater elevations, and 

 which passes into an alpine Flora over a large extent of stiU 

 loftier mountain country. 



Within the limits of the strictly tropical region there is 

 the greatest possible diflerence between the vegetation of the 

 humid and that of the arid climates, shown not only by a 

 difference of species, but of genera and whole natural fami- 

 lies, and accompanied by a corresponding dissimilarity in the 

 aspect of the country. Thus, the impenetrable gi-een jun- 

 gles of the equable and rainy Malayan peninsula, of Eastern 



