INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 153 



Trichodesma Indicwm, lAppia nodiflora, Solarium Jacquini, 

 JErua lanata, Achyranthes aspera. A smaller number^ but still 

 considerable, are tropical African, which are also-widely diffused 

 over India. Among these are many Convolvulacete, as Batatas 

 pentajjhijlla, Pharbitis Nil, Ipomwa muricata and reptans, and 

 many of the commonest Indian weeds, such as Peristroplic 

 bicaliculata and several species of Corchorus and Triumfetta. 

 A considerable proportion (perhaps one-sixth of the whole) 

 consists of common Egyptian plants, which are too intolerant 

 of moisture to withstand the climate of the more humid parts 

 of India, but which extend along the Arabian and Persian 

 coasts to Sindh, and thence to the Panjab and the drier parts 

 of the Gangetic plain, and some even to the Dekhan and 

 Mysore. Such are Peganum Harmala, Cocculus Lemba, Cap- 

 paris aphylla, Fagonia Arabica, Alhagi Maurorum, Acacia 

 Arabica, Prosopis spicigera, Zizyphus Lotus, and Calotropw 

 procera, all of which extend to the drier parts of the peninsula ; 

 and Malcolmia Africana, Corchorus depressus, Cucumis Colo- 

 cynthis, Berthelotia lanceolata, Heliotropium undulatum, Sal- 

 via ^gyptiaca, Lycium Europaum, Cometes Surattensis, seve- 

 ral Chenopodiacea;, and Crypsis schoenoides, which are confined 

 to northern India. With these there occur also a few cen- 

 tral European plants, though far fewer than in the northern 

 Panjab, as for example Ranunculus scehratus. Convolvulus ar- 

 vensis, Heliotropium Europceum, Rumex obtusifolius, Asphodelus 

 fistulosus, and Potamogeton pectinatus and nutans. 



Sindh also contains a considerable number of species which 

 have not been met with elsewhere in India, but which arc 

 Arabian or Nubian plants. Such are Zygophyllum album and 

 simplex, Balsamodendron, Neurada jjrocumbens, Aizoon Cann- 

 riense, Seddera latifolia, Trichodesma Africanum, Acanthodium 

 hirtum, and several Barlerim. A few Persian and Mesopota- 

 mian plants not yet kno^n further west, such as Populus Eu- 

 phratica and Gaillonia, occur also in the list. Puneeria co- 

 agulans. Stocks, is confined to Sindh, and the neighbouring 

 province of Beluchistan. Eastern species which find their 



