PREFACE. Vll 



century in the cellars of the India House and in public and private 

 herbaria. It is a pioneer work, which, besides enabling botanists to 

 name with some accuracy a host of Indian plants, may, I hope, serve 

 two higher purposes, to facilitate the compilation of local Indian 

 floras and monographs of the large Indian genera ; and to enable the 

 phytographer to discuss the problems of the distribution of plants from 

 the point of view of what is perhaps the richest, and is certainly the 

 most varied botanical area on the surface of the globe, and one which, in 

 a greater degree than any other, contains representatives of the floras of 

 both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. 



J. D. HOOKER. 



November, 1897. 



