No. 31. -1885.] 



CEYLON FLORA. 



153 



endemic species ; and Sunaptea with 2, are entirely Malayan, 

 whilst the last four — Vatica, Shorea, Hopea, and Vateria, 

 sect. Hemiphractum — are chiefly so, though each is also 

 sparingly represented in Southern India. All the species, 

 however, are endemic in Ceylon with one exception, Vatica 

 Roxburghiana, the " Mendora," which is also found in 

 many parts of the south of the Peninsula. 



Before going further I must direct attention to the impor- 

 tant fact which will now have become obvious, that this 

 Malayan type is also present in the flora of the Indian 

 Peninsula. It is in the hot, moist regions along the Mala- 

 bar coast on the slopes of the western mountain range, and 

 between that and the sea, that there is found a rich Forest- 

 flora, containing numerous genera and species of great 

 interest, some also Sinhalese, but others strictly endemic or 

 at least not found in Ceylon, and many of which have clear 

 Malayan relationships.* The order Dipterocarpeceit§<M is 

 represented by 9 or 10 species, and recently a new endemic 

 genus of this family, Balanocarpus, with 2 species, has been 

 found near Tinnevelly. Other examples may be instanced 

 in the genera Xanthophyllum (also in Ceylon), Sarcostigma, 

 Lopkopetalum, Holigarna, Pterolobium, Acrocarpus, Xglia, 

 Antistrophe, and Myxopyrum. 



This Malayan element is, however, much less striking in . 

 Malabar than in Ceylon, and forms a far less important 

 factor of its flora. Proceeding northward it rapidly runs 

 out, and has disappeared before the latitude of Bombay. 



8. We return to the question, How did this Malayan 

 flora reach Ceylon and 8.W. India ? I am not aware that this 

 has been discussed from the botanical point of view, but 

 naturalists generally have apparently been content with the 

 theory of Wallace proposed to explain a similar represen- 

 tation of certain Malay types in our fauna. The represen- 

 tation in the animal world is, however, very feeble compared 

 with that of the flora, and the botanical facts above 

 remarked upon were probably not fully known to the eminent 



* Recent explorations of the moist forests of Malabar, &c., have 

 added to the Peninsular flora many plants previously tbought to be 

 peculiar to Ceylon. 



