1849.] The Turaee and Outer Mountains of Kumaoon. 627 



Leptopus (Phyllanthus) cordifolius. (Cluytia of p. 426.) 



Silene conoidea, abundant in the cornfields. 



Melianthus major. A solitary plant of what seems to be this species 

 has existed from time immemrial in the Government Tea Plantation, 

 Hawulbagh, formerly the property of Sir Robert Colquhoun, from 

 whom Dr. Wallich received a portion of his Kumaoon specimens, and 

 who has been accordingly commemorated by a genus of the Labiatse* 

 In Dr. Royle's Illustrations, p. 154, we are told that the Doctor's plant 

 collectors obtained a species of Melianthus on " the lofty mountains of 

 Kumaoon," and Dr. Lindley (Vegetable Kingdom) apparently alludes 

 to this circumstance when he says that Melianthus is remarkable for 

 being found both at the Cape of Good Hope and in Nepal without any 

 intermediate station." (Dr. Royle, Illustrations, p. 25, mentions it as a 

 plant not found in Nepal.) Now, a considerable number of these lofty 

 mountains of Kumaoon have been explored by Lieut. Strachey, Mr. 

 Winterbottom, and myself, and we could scarcely have missed so con- 

 spicuous a shrub if it existed in any of the localities visited. So far 

 therefore, as this negative evidence is of value, added to the probability 

 of the Hawulbagh plant being one of the Cape species, introduced from 

 Calcutta or Seharunpoor, the anomaly of geographical distribution is 

 explained and removed. The Hawulbagh species has never flowered 

 recently, and may be new, introduced from our lofty mountains ; or it 

 may be M. major, and quite unconnected with the specimens alluded 

 to by Dr. Royle, but the presence with it of pear, apple, plum, and 

 other fruit trees, and flowering shrubs, manifestly from some Botanic 

 Garden in the plains, with the absence of all specification as to the site 

 of Dr. Wallich' s specimens, is suspicious ; and " plant-collectors" are 

 glad enough to load their Herbaria with garden specimens, and 

 for the most part not enthusiastic at all in exploring " lofty mountains." 

 About 3 years since M. minor was in flower in General Tapp's garden at 

 Subathoo ; and Ulex Europceus at Simlah ; where his (native) gardener 

 assured me the latter was from the interior. Both were undoubted 

 exotics, introduced by the General. Dr. Wallich' s collectors may have 

 supposed the Hawulbagh Melianthus — if this be M. major, and sup- 

 plied the specimens in question — to be indigenous ; the question can 

 only be set at rest by a comparison of these with authentic ones of the 

 Cape plant. That the identical species should occur in both countries 



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