38 BOMBAY STATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



scientific, of tlie trees of any district lie may be in, in of one or other 

 volume of the Bombay Gazetteer, but he knows not where to turn 

 for information as to the many b eautiful shrubs, creepers and 

 herbs, which in most Indian districts call forth constant admiration, 

 and are many times more numerous than the trees. A list of the 

 botanical books available for Western India will show how very 

 badly off the unscientific or half-scientific enquirer is. There are 

 two books relating exclusively to the Bombay Presidency, one of 

 which, Dalzell and Gibson's, aspires to be a Flora. But five 

 minutes' examination of this has been sufficient for very many 

 men, who would not be afraid of studying something even much 

 deeper, if there were any chance of mastering it. But the first 

 thing that makes itself manifest with regard to Palzell's book is 

 that it requires half-a-dozen other books to make it intelligible. 

 There is not a word of explanation as to the plan of the book, no 

 description of orders, and, what is worse, no description of genera. 

 And the genera were (as was probably inevitable), taken from one 

 author or another just as it happened. The book is, in fact, a 

 collection of specific descriptions of plants, arranged according to 

 the natural orders certainly, but with (apparently) no other system 

 running through it. The language of the descriptions is unneces- 

 sarily difficult, the native names of plants are given very rarely, and 

 some of the commonest trees in the country are not named at all 

 except by their Latin botanical denomination. The other local work 

 is Graham's " Plants of Bombay," a mere sketch unfortunately, 

 though easily recognizable as the work ofa great master. Butjudging 

 by the difficulty of getting this work ten or fifteen years ago, I should 

 fear that by this time it is almost unattainable.* When we turn to 

 the Botany of India generally, we naturally begin with Hooker's 

 Indian Flora. And, indeed, there is no other single work from which 

 we could hope to get information as to ail, or nearly all, the plants 

 to be found in Western India. But apart from the fact that the work 

 will probably not be completed for some years, its very great range 



• The author soems to be unaware of the publication, in 1S8G, of the 25th volume 

 of the Bombay d'a^etteer, containing — "Useful Plants of the Bombay Presidency," by 

 T. C. Lisboa ;" Botany of the Bombay Presidency," by Surgeon-Major W. Gray, 

 L.M.L.Ch.; " List of Gujarat Trees " from Mate ials supplied by G.H.D. Wilson, Esq., 

 G. C. S., and Lieut.-Colouel T. G. McRae, which articles to a great extent, though 

 not fully, supply the want the author complains of. 1'he Hou. Mr. Justice Iiirdwood's 

 "I.i-t of Plants of Mathcran and Mahableshwar,'' published in this Journal, iflso 

 affords great assistance to students of Botany for these particular localities. — G. C. 



