MINBU IN UPPER BURMA* 
1 ? 
Vitis Aubertiana, Indigofer a minbuensis , Millettia cana, Desmodium 
grande , D> teres , Derris pulchra , Terminalia Oliveri } Vernonia sp . 
Diospyros sp. Lettsomia campanuliflorcij Ipomoea lancifolia , Justicia 
kkasiana , Habenaria yomensis, Curcuma sessilis , C . parvula , 
Typhoniunipedatisectum . Purely Burmese— “including Tenasseri tri- 
species form 20 33 per cent, in which a Shan hills contingent is pre- 
dominant. 
Next in importance come those species common to India and 
Malaya 11*56 per cent, closely followed by species which are found 
in China as well as in India and Malaya, 10*4 per cent. Indian species 
come next with 9*4 per cent., then purely Malayan species with j 
per cent. Purely Himalayan species are fairly well represented by 
6*56 per cent, which also indicates the force of African to Australian 
species. The percentage of Deccan species offers a remarkable con- 
trast to the percentage of Deccan species in the desert zone. 
The alluvial belt, as might be expected, has a great predominance 
of general eastern tropical and cosmopolitan tropical species, which 
are followed a long way behind by Indo- African species. The 
endemic Upper Burma element is very small. 
The desert zone shows a considerable percentage— 186— of 
endemic Upper Burma species. The most striking feature, however* 
in the vegetation of this zone is the preponderance of Deccan and 
Indo-African species. This preponderance is no doubt exaggerated 
in the table based on this collection only, but the two element 8 
together probably form at least about a fourth of the whole vege- 
tation of the zone, contrasting strongly with the meagre show they 
make in the other two zones. How to account for the presence of 
such a comparatively large percentage of Sndo-African species is an 
interesting problem. One knows that the presence of a considerable 
African element in the Indian Peninsula is explained by the existence 
of a land connection with Africa in pre-tertiary times. Whether one 
can suppose the existence of a similar land connection between 
Upper Burma and the Western Peninsula before the formation of the 
Arracan Yomahs in tertiary times is a question for geologists to settle. 
Mr. C. B. Clarke explains the presence of the Malayan or Eastern 
element in the flora of India by a direct connection between the 
Malay Peninsula and Ceylon and the South Malabar mountains. It is 
conceivable that the Indo-African element in the Minbu desert zone 
is but the remnant of a flora once common to both Peninsulas and 
Africa, but driven northwards by the breaking up of land surfaces in 
the Eastern Peninsula and the consequent change of climate from dry 
to moist in the southern half of the Burma-Maiaya Peninsula. 
C 
