390 FINAL BOTANICAL WORK 



thanking him for his paper on the distribution of the Bombay 

 and Sind Forest Flora] I had seen it before I wrote my 

 sketch. . . . All is put so clearly with the evidence through- 

 out of personal knowledge whereas my sketch betrays the 

 hand of a mere compiler. 



Similarly he was greatly exercised over the proper use 

 of such a term as Indo-Malayan as presenting a botanical 

 type. Taking the whole Flora of tropical India as Indo- 

 Malayan, with the Malayan element varying in extent in the 

 different areas, 



we know what Malayan types are but in what shape do 

 the Indian come in ? To what type would you refer 

 Impatienst Eeally I suppose it is typically Indian, for 

 comparatively few species are found in the Malayan area 

 proper, and the Indian species are almost unexceptionally 

 endemic. You could hardly regard I. Noli-me-tangere as 

 a case of an Indian type in England without being laughed 

 at ; and yet we unhesitatingly regard Stylidium uliginosum 

 as an Australian type in India. It is a case of ' first catch 

 your type.' (To Gamble, January 17, 1902.) 



To J. S. Gamble 



March 2, 1902. 



I am beginning to doubt if there is any Indian type Flora 

 pure and simple at all ! and that Indo is a geographical, 

 not a botanical expression. Prain's ' India vera ' comes 

 nearest to a real Indian Flora, but is that not really African ? 

 where not Malayan. Of the genera you mention as Indian : 

 Tectona has its Philippine species ; Anogeissus an African ; 

 Chloroxylon is monotypic ; Phcenix abounds from the 

 Canaries to the Cape ; Borassus is all over tropical Africa ; 

 and Impatiens is now found to swarm in tropical Africa ! 

 We talk glibly of Indo-European, Indo-Chinese, Indo- 

 Malayan, Indo-Arabian, and Indo-Oriental Floras, add 

 Indo-African, and where does India proper come in ? The 

 bottom is knocked out of the vocabulary except as a geo- 

 graphical expression. 



I think I shall have to formulate a note to this effect 

 for the Gazetteer. Of course it is conceivable that India 

 is the mother country of all the Indos, and I rather cotton 



