JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE , 



LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON, 



jPrcdcursores ad Floram Indiccmi : being Sketches of the Natural 

 Families of Indian Plants, with Remarks on their Distri- 

 bution, Structure, and Affinities. By J. D. Hooker, Esq., 

 M.D., E.R.S. & L.S., and T. Thomson, Esq., M.D., E.R.S. 

 & L.S. 



[Read March 3rd, 1857.] 



It is our intention to offer to the Linnean Society, from time to 

 time, systematic sketches of the Natural Orders of Indian Plants, 

 chiefly derived from a careful study of the materials upon which 

 we have both been for many years engaged. 



"We have been induced to draw up the present papers for two 

 reasons : first, because no satisfactory advance can be made in the 

 general botany of India, at the present time, except by the study 

 of the Indian Herbarium now deposited at Kew, whilst many 

 years must elapse before an equally extensive and complete series 

 of specimens can be elsewhere brought together ; and secondly, 

 because the careful coUation of these with each other, and with 

 the Hookerian herbarium at Kew (of which indeed they form a 

 part), supplies us with a vast quantity of invaluable data in 

 botany, which must otherwise remain for years unpublished. 



It was indeed mainly the unprecedented extent and intrinsic 

 value of the Indian collections placed at our disposal by Sir W. J. 

 Hooker, coupled with a request from the President and Council of 



LINN. PROC. BOTANY. B 



