2 GENERAL COLLETT AND MR. W. B. HEMSLEY ON PLANTS 
Dr. King, I decided that the collections should be worked out 
eritieally. This has been done at Kew by my friend Mr. Hemsley ; 
and I am told, by those better able to give an opinion on 
this subject thau I am, that the results and particulars are of 
sufficient scientific interest for publication. I therefore submit 
this paper to the Society in the hope that I may thus, in some 
humble measure, advance the science of systematic and geogra- 
phical botany. 
As I have already mentioned, my original object was not 
publication, consequently I did not observe and note with that 
exactitude I should otherwise have done, and I have to solicit 
the indulgence of the Society for any shortcomings due to this 
cause. 
As soon as it was decided to publish an account of the col- 
lection, Dr. King and his assistant, Dr. Prain, cheerfully under- 
took the laborious task of going through the Calcutta Herbarium 
to take out the specimens previous to sending them to Kew. 
The critical comparison they have been subjected to there has 
revealed the existence of a much larger number of new forms 
than was anticipated, and a few of the most remarkable are here 
exhibited for the inspection of the Fellows. 
The collection is, of course, very far indeed from a complete 
representation of the flora of those little-known regions, but it 
may serve as a fair sample of the composition of the vegetation. 
. Excluding a few probably introduced plants, and the Grasses, 
which were sent to Mr. Duthie, F.L.S., Superintendent of the 
Saharunpore Botanic Garden (who is making a special study of 
this natural order) aud have not reached England at the time 
of writing, the total number of species of Phanerogams enume- 
rated is about 725, belonging to 460 genera and 109 natural 
orders*. But before proceeding to Mr. Hemsley's analysis of 
the relationships and geographical distribution of the elements 
of this sample of the flora, I will give some of the more salient 
* The enumeration, it should be stated, also includes some plants collected 
for me by Surgeon N. Manders, of the Medical Staff, while he was attached to 
the Southern Shan Column during the cold season of 1887-88, and while 
quatered at Koni in the Shan hills during the summer of 1888. Mr. Manders 
collected several interesting novelties, and his name is appended to all the 
plants he collected. We have likewise added, with the assent of the collector, 
a few plants collected by Mr. Aplin, of the Indian Forest Department, and 
reported on by him to the Chief Commissioner of Burma. 
