392 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



The Flora of the Presidency/ of Bomb nj. By Theodore Cooke, C.I.E., 

 etc., formerly Principal of the College of Science at Poona, 

 and Director of the Botanical Survey of Western India. 

 Part I. Pp. 192. London : Taylor & Francis. Price 8s. 



The Flora of British India, edited, and for the most part also 

 elaborated, by the veteran botanist, Sir Joseph Hooker, had for its 

 scope, not only the vegetation of the whole of the Empire, from 

 the Himalaya to Cape Comorin and Tenasserim, but also that of 

 the provinces of Malacca and Wellesley, in the Malay Peninsula, 

 and of the adjacent islands of Penang and Singapore. In that 

 monumental work there had been brought together, not only the 

 bulk of the information recorded in the books and scattered papers 

 of the earlier writers on Indian botany, but also descriptions of 

 many of the species named but undescribed in the great Wallichian 

 Herbarium, and of the crowd of species, alike unnamed and un- 

 described, which had been brought together in the herbaria of 

 numerous Indian travellers and collectors. Sir Joseph's work is a 

 signal example of the centralization of botanical knowledge. It 

 afi'ords an admirable basis for the elaboration, in greater detail, of 

 the individual floras of the various provinces included in the Indian 

 Empire. The organization, some years ago, by the Supreme 

 Government of India, of a botanical survey of the Empire, gave an 

 official impetus to a scheme long projected and desired by Indian 

 botanists for the preparation and publication of such floras. A 

 beginning has now been made in the realization of this project by 

 the publication, under the auspices of the Secretary of State for 

 India, of a first part of a Flora of the Bombay Presidency. This 

 is the work of Dr. Theodore Cooke, for many years Principal of the 

 College of Science at Poona, and for some time Director of the 

 Botanical Survey of Western India. Similar Floras of the North- 

 western Provinces of the Panjab, of the North- Western Himalaya, 

 and of Bengal proper, are understood to be well advanced towards 

 publication. A local Flora of the country round Simla (the summer 

 capital of the Indian Empire), prepared by Major- General Sir 

 Henry CoUett, K.C.B., at his own cost and without Government 

 assistance, is now being passed through the press, and it is to be 

 hoped that the preparation of official Floras for the provinces of 

 Assam, Madras, and Burmali may soon be arranged for. The 

 Malayan provinces of Wellesley, Penang, Malacca, and Singapore 

 were removed, shortly before the commencement of the preparation 

 of Sir Joseph Hooker's Flora, from the administration of the 

 Viceroy of India, and were formed into a colony under the designa- 

 tion of the Straits Settlements. The preparation of a special Flora 

 of these provinces ceased, therefore, to be a responsibility of the 

 Indian Government. The responsibility has, however, been ac- 

 cepted by the Straits Government ; and precursors to a complete 

 Flora, not only of the four provinces just mentioned, but of all the 

 remaining provinces of the Malay Peninsula, have been for some 



