33 degrees (see Carl von Hugel's 'Kaschmir', 1840, 2d pt. 249). Among
the Coniferae, we find the Pinus deodwara, or deodara (in Sanscrit,
'dewa-daru', the timber of the gods), which is nearly allied to Pinus
cedrus. Near the limit of perpetual snow flourish the large and showy
flowers of the Gentiana venusta, G. Moorcroftiana, Swertia purpurescens, S.
speciosa, Parnassia armata, P. nubicola, Poenia Emode, Tulipa stellata; and
besides varieties of European genera peculiar to these Indian mountains,
true European species as Leontodon taraxacum, Prunella vulgaris, Galium
aparine, and Thlaspi arvense. The heath mentioned by Saunders, in Turner's
'Travels', and which had been confounded with Calluna vulgaris, is an
Andromeda, a fact of the greatest importance in the geography of Asiatic
plants. If I have made use, in this work, of the unphilosophical
expressions of European genera, 'European' special, 'growing wild in Asia',
etc., it has been in consequence of the old botanical language, which,
instead of the idea of a large dissemination, or, rather, of the coexistence
of organic productions, has dogmatically substituted the false hypothesis of
a migration, which, from predilection for Europe, is further assumed to have
been from west to east.
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