Palms are numerous in the tropical parts of Asia, and particularly in its southeastern re ,frionnumerousbut are less numerous than in the tropi cal parts of South America. The cocoanut is one of the most common palms in the vicinity of the sea. Some of the Asiatic palms are valuable for the sago which they yield. The natural order Dipteracete is one of those peculiar to India and southeastern Asia. and includes some of the noblest timber trees, including teak, so valuable for ship-building. The flora of the Indo-Chinese peninsula, and of the southeastern part of Asia generally, differs from that of India, and exhibits, if possible, a richer variety. The change from the Indian flora is still greater in the islands, and a resemblance to that. of Polynesia and of Australia begins to appear. The bread-fruit takes the place of its congener, the jack of India. These regions produce nut megs, cloves, and other spices. The Lauraceaf are abundant, yielding cinnamon, cassia, and China and Japan have many plants peculiar to themselves, and are remarkable for the prevalence of the Ternstroemiacete, the natural order to which the tea-plant and the camellia belong. The Himalaya Mountains
possess a flora very different from that of the Indian plains, and in some of its most character istic features, particularly in the prevalence of large rhododendrons and magnolias, it has been found to agree remarkably with the flora of the southern parts of the United States; while at still greater altitudes there is a strong resem blance to that of more northern regions; forests of pine appear. and along with them the deodar, a cedar resembling the cedar of Lebanon. The mountains of Java also produce oaks and other trees resembling those of the temperate zone, although the species are peculiar. An important element in the flora I if the lowlands of southern and eastern Asia is the bamboo, which often at tains to gigantic proportions.
Many of the cultivated plants of Europe are known to be natives of Asia, and others are supposed to be so. Among the economic plants are rice, wheat, barley. oats, rye, maize (intro duced), potato (introduced), beans, peas, buck wheat, millet; and in the south banana, plan tain, yam, cacao, sugar-cane, tobacco, spices, cot ton, poppy, hemp, flax, and corehorus.