Vlll PREFACE. 



over, such references would not have proved of the smallest use to the 

 Indian resident and traveller, for whom this work is specially in- 

 tended. 



And here I must caution botanists against an over-reliance upon 

 the names attached to the Indian collections which have been distri- 

 buted from Kew, first by myself, and latterly by the keeper of the 

 herbarium, between 1855 and 1870. These collections originally com- 

 prised about half a million of specimens, which had been accumulating 

 for upwards of thirty years, principally in the India House (where a 

 great number were wholly destroyed by damp and vermin), at Kew, 

 and at the Linnean Society, and consisted chiefly of the collections of 

 Griffith, Falconer, Heifer, Iloyle, G. Thomson, T. Thomson and nivsrlt', 

 Law, Stocks, Dalzell, and Gibson, together with the remainder of 

 Wallich's, and latterly Wight's. From these, after arrangement, up- 

 wards of 380,000 specimens were distributed in sets to public and 

 private museums in Europe, India, and America, every specimen bear- 

 ing a ticket with the name of the locality and collector, and that of the 

 plant, as far as it could be approximately determined. I have no reason 

 to suppose that these collections contain more errors in nomenclature 

 than do similar ones; but, as was explicitly stated when they were 

 sent out, such names are not to be regarded as authoritative. 



The area over which each species is distributed, is indicated by dis- 

 tricts; these districts or geographical areas being botanical regions, 

 which coincide in the main so closely with the \\cll recognized territo- 

 rial divisions of India, that a strict definition of them is unnecc- 

 an account of their limits and physical features will be found in the 

 Introductory Essay to the Flora Indica, and its accompanying maps. 



It has been a source of most sincere regret to me that a combination 

 of circumstances has prevented the continuation of the Indian Flora 

 upon the originally contemplated and more extended plan, under the 

 joint authorship of my old friend and fellow-traveller, Dr. Thomson, 

 and myself. Other duties in our respective services necessitated its 

 postponement for a very long period, until indeed it became obvious 

 that years were not left to us, even could we have commanded sufficient 

 leisure, to finish so laborious an undertaking. 



