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vi PREFACE. 



Tibet, in the extreme West; from Sikkim, Bengal, Assam, and Munne- 

 pore in the East; from Behar, Central India, and Chota Nagpur in the 

 centre; and from the Nilghiri Hills in the Sonth. Next in importance 

 are the Malay Peninsula collections made by Father Scortechini, the 

 Messrs. Curtis, Wray, Hervey, Hullett, Merton, and Ridley, and by 

 collectors sent by Dr. King from the Botanic Gardens of Calcutta. 

 These latter have added several hundred species to the genera described 

 in the first volume alone of this ¥lora, and have been published by 

 Dr. King in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Thirdly 

 rank INIr. Duthie's copious and excellently preserved collections made in 

 Kashmir, Western Tibet, Garwhal, Kumaon, Kohilkund, Eajmahal, 

 and Cential India, and Dr. Aitchison's from the Kurrum and other 

 valleys west of the Indus. 



Of the works upon Indian Botany that have appeared during the pub- 

 lication of Flora of the British India, the more important are Mr. C. B. 

 Clarke's *' Com posits Indicse " (187G) ; Mr. Kurz's "Forest Flora of 

 Burma" (1876); Dr. Brandis' "Forest Flora of N.-W. and Central 

 India" (1874); Col. Beddome's *' Flora Sylvatica of Southern India," 

 vols. i. and ii. (1869-73), and his " Icones Plantarum Indioe Oricntalis," 

 vol. i. (1874); Dr. Trimen's '* Handbook of the Ceylon Flora," 

 Parts i. — iii. (1893-5) ; and Dr. King's "Annals of the Botanic Gardens, 

 Calcutta," vols. i. — vii. (1888-1897), which include illustrated mono- 

 graphs by himself and other Indian botanists of the Indian species of 

 FicuSj Querent, Pedicularis, Magnoliacece^ Anonaceoe^ Bambuscs^ &c. 



In the Preface to the first volume of this work I have stated that it 

 was proposed to include in it the Ferns and their allies. This intention 

 has been abandoned, owing to the appearance of excellent available 

 works describing the Indian species, especially Hooker and Baker's 

 " Synopsis Filicum " (1874) ; Col. Beddomo's '' Review of the Ferns 

 of N.-W. India ^' (1880), and his " Handbook of the Ferns of British 

 India" (1883), with Supplement (1892). 



Having regard to this *' Flora of British India," I must remind those 

 who may use it that it has no pretensions to give full characters of the 

 genera and species contained in it. It aims at no more than being an 

 attempt to sweep together and sy^^tematize within a reasonable time and 

 compass, a century of hitherto undigested materials scattered through a 



library of botanical books and monographs, and preserved in vast 

 collections, many of which latter had lain unexamined for half a 



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