AN INDIAN TYPE FLOKA ? 391 



to the idea. ' India vera ' of Prain reappears in Burma 

 I believe. 



On January 23, 1902, he tells Mr. Duthie : 



I have finished the Gazetteer work, after a fashion that 

 I fear will satisfy nobody. The material I had would fill 

 a volume of 1000 pages 20 allowed me ; I have extended 

 it to 40, which will, I expect, be met by an order to cut 

 down. 



As to publication, When ? is the question. They gave 

 me three months to finish it, I took six and now they tell 

 me that ' some considerable time may elapse before it is 

 put into print.' At my age this is serious. (To F. Darwin, 

 February 1, 1902.) 



Impressed by the scientific breadth of the scheme, his 

 friends urged him to enlarge, not to condense his sketch. 

 He objected that an enlargement would not be suitable for the 

 Gazetteer, which was not intended for botanists, but for the 

 intelligent general reader. The elaborate work they desired 

 would have involved labour in collating the Indian genera and 

 species with the Chinese, Malayan, and African, and of working 

 out all the habitats of Mr. Duthie's Himalayan specimens in 

 the herbarium. 



When you see the Gazetteer article, you will be amused 

 with yourselves for supposing that its author was capable 

 of writing such an account of the Indian Flora as you would 

 like to see. 



Moreover, even if he were able, he did not think the time 

 had come for it. With so many regions from Nepal to Burma, 

 from Orissa to Bombay, still botanically unexplored, to add 

 to what we know of the known provinces would not throw 

 more light on the broad features of Indian phyto-geography. 

 On the other hand, a fuller geographical treatment of the 

 forests, he tells Mr. Gamble, would be most fruitful and use- 

 ful ' but I am not up to it. Only a man like yourself could 

 grapple that.' 



