INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 253 



pearance of Australian forms in the Malay Peninsula has been 

 alluded to at p. 103, and is shown by species of Stylidium, 

 Bceckia, Melaleuca, Casuarina, Leptospermum, Leucopogon, 

 Iristmiia, and Dacrydium. It is a remarkable fact that the 

 teakj which abounds in some parts of Java and in the northern 

 districts of Tenasserim, is not known to inhabit the Malayan 

 Peninsula. 



Jack was the first botanist who explored the Malayan Pe- 

 ninsula. Some years later, Dr. Wallich visited Penang and 

 Singapur, where he made large collections : a part of Mr. 

 Cuming's collection was also formed in Malaya. More re- 

 cently, Griffith was for a considerable period resident at 

 Malacca; and it is from his notes and collections that our 

 detailed knowledge of its flora is derived. Sir W. Norris, 

 Mr. Prince, and Dr. Oxley have also added much to our in- 

 formation. 



IV. Afghanistan and Beluchistan. 



The great chain of the Kouenlun, which separates the Indus 

 and its tributaries from the Yarkand plain, is continued to the 

 westward, under the name of the Hindu Kiish. This chain, 

 which has a westerly direction, with some southing, separates 

 the basin of the Oxus on the north from that of the Kabul 

 river, a tributary of the Indus, and from the Helmand, a 

 river which runs towards the south-west, and is lost in the 

 desert of Sehistan, not reaching the sea. The elevation of 

 the chain diminishes rapidly to the westward, but few accu- 

 rate determinations of its height are known. The Kalu 

 pass, near Bamian, is 12,500 feet, and the peak of Koh-i-Baba, 

 which rises close to it, is 17,000 feet above the level of the 

 sea. The Erak (or Irak) pass is 12,900 feet. 



From the neighbourhood of the peak of Koh-i-Baba a me- 

 ridional chain runs nearly due south to the Indian Ocean, 

 forming the watershed between the Indus on the east and the 

 llelmand on the west. The axis of this chain passes close to 

 Ghazni, elevated 7726 feet; and to Quetta, 5540 feet. It 



