108 
A BOTANICAL TOUR IN THE TINNEVELLY HILLS. 
composed of such species as Randia dumetorum, Hugonia Mystax, Scutia 
indica, Grewia spp ., Capparis spp. and a host of other shrubs. 
After leaving Mundandurai our march lay across forests. These are not 
so dense and impenetrable as those near Naterikal. There were a lot of 
species peculiar to these forests as distinct from those of the other forests. 
Instead of attempting to give a detailed enumeration of all the species col- 
lected by us here, it will be convenient to consider the chief distinctive 
points in the flora o f this area. One striking peculiarity of the vegetation 
of this region lies in the large preponderance of several typical Ceylon plants 
such as Gqrcinia eckinocarpa, Filicium decipiens, Pithecolobium subcoriac - 
cum, Eryihroxylum luoidum , Dianella ensi folia and several others. An- 
other feature, though somewhat less striking, is the presence of a number of 
species common to this region and the Malay Peninsula. These are Scolopia 
crenata, Calopkyllum inophyllum , Urena lobata, Aglaia Roxburgkiana, 
Erythropalum populifolium, besides several other herbs. 
Remarks dss the Distribution of Species. 
Though the collection dealt with in this paper is no doubt a very partial 
one, a glance at the systematic list will show that it possesses some interest 
with regard to the distribution of the species. Of the 170 plants enumerated, 
the following species are known to be endemic to this area (i.e., occurring 
only in the Tinnevelly hills and the adjoining; portion of Travancore hills) : — 
lonidium travancoricum , Balanocarpus utilis, Pterospermum obtusi fo- 
lium, Leptfmychia moacurroides , Homalium travancoricum, 
Hedyvtis albo-nervia, Hedyotis purpurascens, Iledyotis viscida, 
Acranthera grandiflora, Psychdtria nudiflora , Centra therum moR#. 
Vernonia sp. Vernonia travancorica, Ardisia sp., Diospyros 
Barberi , Diospyros foliolosa, Didymocarpus Rot tier ia na. var. 
Wightii , Stenosiphonium Russellianum, var. subsericea, Androgra- 
phis elongata , Andrographis viscosula, Diotacanthus albiflorus, 
Diotacanthus grgndis, Orthosiphon comosus , Coleus parviflorus t 
Anisochilus robustus, Anisochilus scaber , Cinnamomum gracile, 
Mallotus Bedcfamei , Elatostema sp., Ania latijolia, Elettarid Carda- 
momum , Anaphyllum Beddomei , Ochlandra travancorica . 
There is, therefore, a very appreciable endemic element in the Tinne- 
velly flora, as the present collection alone contains 33 endemic forms out of 
a total of 470, making about one-fourteenth or 7 '02 per cent, of the whole. 
Of the remaining thirteen-fourteenths, 12 plants, making only 2*12 per cent, 
of the whole collection, are purely Ceylon species while 47 or 10 per cent, are 
purely South Peninsular Indian ones, the number of species common only 
to both these regions being 123 or 26*17 per cent, of the whole. There are 
still 255 species left out of which a little more than half are distributed 
throughout India while varying proportions of the remaining half are dis- 
tributed to Assam, Upper Burma, Lower Burma and Malaya. 
