13 
momum, yielding the tej-pat, or bay-leaf of India, the 
Malabathrum of the Ancients ; also Piper longum, which 
does not, however, furnish long pepper sufficiently good or 
abundantly enough to be an article of commerce ; together 
with Shorea robusta, one of the Dipterocarpece ; Embryop- 
teris glutinifera, one of the Ebenacece ; as well as 
Semecarpus Anacardium, and the Catechu-yielding Acacia; 
with Bauhinia racemosa and HiptageMadablota, as gigantic 
climbers. Here the geologist will be interested in seeing a 
full-grown Pine alongside of a dwarfish Palm, and the 
Rattan trailing in valleys, with the Plantain wild and flourish- 
ing at the foot of mountains, on which species of Acer, 
Ulmus, Betula, Carpinus, and Juglans (genera found in a 
fossil state) are growing in fullest luxuriance. The agri- 
culturalist will here notice the excellence of the rice cultivated 
in some of these vallies, and that the Banana, Jack-fruit 
(Artocarpus integrifolia), and Guava (Psidium pyriferum) 
succeed nearly as well as in the rich soil and moist climate 
of Bengal. 
If we wish, however, to draw either scientific or practical 
deductions from the prevalence in any situation of particular 
plants, we must pay especial attention on the one hand to 
the habit, and on the other to the proportional number 
of the species, as compared with the general character of the 
family ; for though the different families of plants occur in 
the greatest numbers in particular countries and cbmates, yet 
they frequently send their representatives into very distant 
regions. Thus we have in the south of Europe, either 
indigenous or introduced, a Laurel, a Palm, a Myrtle, 
Oleander, Calotropis, Vitex, and a few Acacias, all which 
belong to families occurring in the greatest numbers in 
tropical countries. So, some of those which form the 
largest trees of Equinoctial regions occur in European 
countries as annual herbs ; as of the Malvacece, the huge 
Silk-cotton-tree in the former, and the humble Mallow in 
