

INTRODUCTION. 



The Stracliey and Winterbottom collections, on which this Cata- 

 logue is based, were made between the years 1846-49 within the 

 province of Kuniaon and in adjoining parts of Garliwal and Tibet. 

 This portion of the Western Himalaya is situated between the 

 Nepal frontier on the East and the Bhj'igirathi or Eastern branch 

 of the Ganges Kiver on the West. Its area (excluding the Tibetan 

 portion) amounts approximately to 11,500 square miles. 



Very little was known regarding the flora of Kumaon until 

 about sixty years ago, when Lieut, (now Sir Eichard) Stracliey 

 commenced his scientific survey of the mountain ranges westward 

 of Nepal, and afterwards, in 1848, undertook an extensive jovirney 

 with Mr. J. E. Winterbottom to the Rakas-tiil and Manasowar 

 lakes in Tibet. It was on the latter occasion that a large pro- 

 portion of the plants contained in what is generally known as the 

 I Strachey and AVinterl)ottom Herbarium ' were collected. " The 

 ^collection," as Sir R. Strachey informs us, " was principally made 

 J along a line extending through the province of Kumaon, across 

 ' the Himalaya in a direction generally perpendicular to that of 

 the ranges of mountain of which the chain consists, over a dis- 

 f' tance of some eighty or ninety English miles. The region 

 traversed passes from South-West to North-East, commencing in 

 J^ the plain of Rohilkhand at an elevation of about 1,000 ft. above 

 ^ the sea-level, through the snowy ranges, ft)llowing for the most 

 (^ part the customary routes, and terminating in the Tibetan plateau 

 , at an altitude of between 14,000 and 15,000 ft. on the upper 

 course of the river Sutlej." ^ 

 ^ Sir R. Strachey acknowledges the great assistance he had 

 ^ received in forming the collections from the late Colonel Madden, 

 fv^who resided for many years at Almora, the chief town in Kumaon, 

 <^^and has contributed to botanical literature several papers con- 

 -« — taining accounts of his journeys in this province.^ He ecpially 

 1 



t^ • A detailed account by Sir R. Strachey of this very interesting journey will 

 ^_r3be found in the Journ. R. Geogr. Soc, vol. xv. (1900). See also a valuable pajjcr 

 — jby Mr. W. B. Heinsley on " The Flora of Tibet or High Asia," ])iiblished in 

 ^Journ. Linn. Soc. xxxv. (1902). 



' See especially " Brief Observations on some of the Pines and other Coniferous 

 Trees of the Northern Himalaya," in Journ. Agri. and Hort. Soc. of India, 

 vol. iv. (1845), and vol. vii. (1850). "The Turaeo and Outer Mountains of 

 Kumaon," in Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vol. xvii. (1848), and vol. xviii. (1849), 



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