2 DE. HOOKEE AND DE. THOMSON'S PE^CTIESOEES 



the British Association, that induced us to found a work upon 

 them, designed to contain a complete account of the vegetation of 

 India in all its aspects. The first volume of our * Flora Indica * 

 was printed in 1855, and we must refer to its introductory essay 

 for a history of the rise and progress of Indian botany, and for 

 details of the principal collections on which these sketches will 

 be founded *. Being unable to continue that work at present, we 

 venture to hope that a temporary substitute, giving such an ac- 

 count of what it should consist of, as the following pages supply, 

 may be acceptable to our fellow-botanists. 



The Praecursores are intended to be literally what their name 

 implies : to ourselves they will be a synopsis of the materials 

 placed in order for critical study, when we shall be able to continue 

 the '■ Flora Indica ' ; and they may further be regarded as prcemo- 

 nenda for our contemporaries or successors, who may be about to 

 study Indian plants, and who will gather from them a tolerably 

 correct idea of the nature and extent of any Natural Order they 

 may undertake to study; besides a certain amount of definite 

 botanical information on each, and many indications of researches 

 to be undertaken and investigations to be followed up. 

 . It is not easy to say how far sketches of this kind can be con- 

 sidered as exponents of the vegetation of a country so extensive 

 as India, extending in elevation from the level of the sea to 18,000 

 feet, and in area from Malacca to Afghanistan, and from Ceylon 

 to Tibet ; and still less can they be guides to the writings of the 

 numerous botanists whose labours on Indian plants are scattered 

 over the whole field of botanical literature. Our own researches, 

 it is needless to say, cannot be much extended beyond a careful 

 comparison with the best authorities of the ] 2,000 species and 

 300,000 specimens which we have to examine and classify, and which 

 must pass many times under our scrutiny during the progress of 

 the arrangement of the great Herbaria from which we derive our 

 materials. In the course of such an undertaking as this, though 



* In addition to the collections there enumerated, we have to add the names 

 of the following gentlemen who have contributed to Sir W. Hooker's very va- 

 luable materials for the * Flora Indica ' : Dr. Ritchie of Bombay, an extensive 

 collection from Concan and the Deccan, &c. ; Dr. M'Clelland, a very large Pegu 

 herbarium ; the Eev. Mr. Foulkes, a considerable Peninsular collection ; the Rev. 

 Mr. Johnson, Cochin plants ; Mr. Bartle Frere, Beloochistan plants. We have 

 also to state that the whole of the late Dr. Stocks' collections have been incor- 

 porated with the dupUcate Indian herbaria for distribution along with our own, 

 and that we have to acknowledge the receipt of many valuable additional collec- 

 tions from Messrs. Edgeworth, Thwaites, Schmidt, Wight, and Law. 



