PBEEACE. 



THIS book is intended mainly for the use of two classes. 

 Firstly, Englishmen and Englishwomen, whose duty calls 

 them to Western India, and who without being, or intending to 

 become, scientific botanists, wish to know something about the 

 trees and flowers which surround them. And among these T 

 specially think of those district officers who have (as I had 

 myself for many years) to spend several months in each year 

 more or less in the jungle, and with very little of English 

 or educated society. Secondly, the educated natives of the 

 country, whose inclination directs them more and more to 

 intellectual pursuits. The study of natural history has spread 

 so greatly, both in England and India, during the last twenty- 

 five years, that there are many in both of the classes mentioned, 

 to whom it must seem a hardship that there are so few books 

 to help them in the study of any branch of natural science in 

 India. Eor it is obvious that large and expensive books are 

 not generally within the reach of those I have mentioned, and 

 that articles in magazines, gazetteers, and the journals of 

 scientific societies are seldom available up-country, even if they 

 were adapted for use in the field. Small unambitious books, 

 of which there are now many relating to every branch of science 

 in England, are wanted for India, and so far are hot to be 

 found. 



The object of this book, then, is to enable any person of 

 average education and very moderate powers of study to 



