xxiv Introduction. 



the various plants described, i.e. the districts and places where 

 they may be found, I did not keep as many notes as I 

 might have done, and both Dalzell and Graham are rather 

 short in this matter. I have, therefore, in most cases only 

 put the provinces or districts in which the species are 

 found, giving first the localities in which I myself have found 

 them ; then the habitats given by Dalzell, Graham, and other 

 local authorities ; and finally adding Hooker's habitat when the 

 species is either widely spread through India or confined within 

 very narrow limits in W. India. 



The same deficiency, and for the same reason, will be 

 noticed as to the time of year when the different species 

 flower. And I have very rarely given the measurements of 

 leaves, fruits, &c. They are given very fully in the " Indian 

 Flora," but the specimens at Kew, from which these measure- 

 ments are taken, come from such a very wide range of country 

 that they would, I believe, when applied to plants found in a 

 limited territory like the Bombay Presidency, be quite as often 

 misleading as helpful. The variation in the growth of plants 

 and in the development of their various parts, caused by 

 differences of soil, climate, and other conditions, is so great, 

 that it is almost impossible to give the ordinary size of any 

 particular plant of wide distribution, or the average size of its 

 leaves. The following extract from Hooker gives the chief 

 causes of such variations as I have mentioned : 



"A bright light and open situation, particularly at con- 

 siderable elevations, without too much wet or drought, tends 

 to increase the size and heighten the colour of flowers in pro- 

 portion to the stature and foliage of the plant. Shade, on the 

 contrary, especially with rich soil and sufficient moisture, tends 

 to increase the foliage and draw up the stem, but to diminish 

 the number, size, and colour of the flowers. A hot climate 

 and dry situation tend to increase the hairs, prickles, and 

 other productions of the Epidermis, and to shorten and stiffen 

 the branches. Moisture in a rich soil has the contrary effect. 

 The neighbourhood of the sea, or a saline soil or atmosphere, 

 imparts a thicker and more succulent consistence to the foliage 

 and almost every part of the plant, and appears not unfrequently 

 to enable plants usually annual to live through the winter. 



" The luxuriance of plants growing in a rich soil, and the 

 dwarf, stunted character of those crowded in poor soils, or in 

 the cold, damp regions of high mountain tops, is well known. 



