Besides the chenna, wheat, barley, and more rarely oats, with various kinds of pulse, which form the winter crops of the Gaugetie plain of Central India, of Berar, of the Central Dekhan, of Mysore, and Coimbat,ore, there are of wild plants, Ranunculus sceleratus and R. nauri catus, Capsella bursa - pastoris, Selene coniea, Alsine media, Arenaria serpyllifolia, Euphorbia heleoscopia, Medicago lupulina and M. denticu lata, Lathyrus aphaca, Gnaphalea Xanthium, Veronica agrestis and V. anagallis, 'Heliotropium Europeurn, various Polygona, Juncus bufonius, Butomus umbellatus, Alisma plantago, and very many Cyperacem, Graminem, and such aquatics as Myriophyllum, Potamogeton natans and P. crispus, Vallisneria, Zannichellia, Ranunculus aquatilis, Lemna, aud many others.
In the regions at the base of the mountains in the perennially humid provinces of India, from the atmosphere being more loaded with moisture, the climate is more equable than that of the adjacent plains, and a warm temperate flora, unknown to the plains, commences at elevations of 2000 to 3000 feet, and prevails over the purely tropical vegetation which appears amongst it in scattered trees and shrubs. Amongst other orders may be mentioned Magnoliacem, Ternstreemiacem, sub-tropical Rosacem (as Prunus, Photinia, etc.), Kadsura, Sphaerostema, Rhododendron, Vacci nium, Ilex, Styrax, Symplocos, Olea, Sapotacem, Lauracem, Podocarpus, Pinus longifolia, with many mountain forms of truly tropical families, as palms, Pandanus, Musa, Clusikeem, vines, Ver nonia, and hosts of others.
In the Himalaya, the truly temperate vegetation supersedes the sub-tropical above 4000 to 6000 feet; aind the elevation at which this change takes place corresponds roughly with that at which the winter is marked by an annual fall of snow. This phenomenon varies extremely with the latitude, lcngitude, humidity, and many local circumstances. Ceylon and the Madras Penin sula, where mountains attain 9000 feet, and where considerable tracts are elevated above 6000 to 8000 feet, snow has never been known to fall. On the Kliassya mountain, which attains 7000 feet, and where a great extent of surface is above 5000 feet, snow seems to be unknown. In Sikkim, snow annually falls at about 6000 feet elevation ; in Nepal, at 5000 feet ; in Kamaon and Garhwal, at 4000 ; and in the extreine West Himalaya lower still. In the mountains of Ceylon, on the Neil gherries, and on the Khassya Hills, the temperate forms of pLants are more numerous than upon the Himalaya. Violent winds sweep over the
broad, grassy, undulating tops of the Khassya Hills, and hundreds of species common to the Sikkim Himalaya and to the Khassya. ascend higher in the warm forest-clad and sheltered Himalayan valleys at 5000 to 7000 feet in Sikkim than they do in the Khassya Hills. In the Him alaya, the genera Rhododendron, 3Ionotropa, Pedi cularis, Corydalis, Nepeta, Carex, Spirma, Primula, Cerasus, Lonicera, Viburnum, and Saussurea, attain their maximum of development over all other parts of the world. Ephedra ranges from the plains of the Panjab up to 16,000 feet iu the N.W. Himalaya ; the genus Marlea ascends from 3000 to 8000 feet in Sikkim, and in the Western Panjab, at scarce 4000 feet, accompanies Celtis and a species of ash ; sub-tropical Myrsine extend into Afghanistan. Juniperus excelsa, found as low as 5000 feet in Afghanistan, ascends to 15,000 feet in Tibet. Populus Euphratica, a Cynanchum, Chloris barbata, Cyperus aristatus, aro tropical and sub-tropical plants which ascend to 11,000 feet in Ladakh, and Peganum harmaLa attains to 9000 feet. The alpine or arctic flora, on the alpine region of the Himalaya, commences above the limit of trees throughout a great part of the Himalaya, and hardly reaches its extreme limit at 18,500 feet (31 miles) of elevation. It has a comparative paucity of cryptogamic plants, is poor in the luxuriant mosses of tall growth and succulent habit, and, though fully representing the flora of the polar regions, it partakes in its characteristic genem of the temperate flora, and contains so many types foreign to the flora of the polar regions (as Gentiana, Ephedra, Valerianem, Corydalis), and some which are even rare in 1 Siberia, that it must rather be considered as a continuation of the alpine flora of Europe than a representation of dud of the arctic zone.
The bulk of the flom of the perennially humid regions of India, as of the whole Malayan Penin sula, the Upper Assam valley, the Khassya. niouu tains, the forests at the base of the Himalaya from the Brahmaputra to Nepal, of the Malabar coast, and of Ceylon, are of ono type, which includes a very large proportion of the Indian genera.
The floras of the frontier provinces of India are identical with those of the countries which surround them, and there is even a decided affinity between the floras of areas separated by oceans, deserts, or mountain chains, which present many natural characters in common, for vvhich neither migration nor climate will account.