SCO THE EETUEN FEOM INDIA 



labour saw the completion of the Flora of British India. This, 

 he notes with regret, was conceived on a more restricted scale. 

 It ran to seven volumes, pubHshed between 1872-97, contain- 

 ing but 6000 pages of letterpress dealing with 16,000 species. 

 In the preface Hooker describes it as a pioneer work, and 

 necessarily incomplete. But he hopes it may 



help the phytographer to discuss problems of 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. 



To complete the history of his systematic work on Indian 

 Botany, let me quote from Professor Bower. 



Scarcely was this great work ended when Dr. Trimen 

 died. He left the Ceylon Flora, on which he had been 

 engaged, incomplete. Three volumes were already pub- 

 lished, but the fourth was far from finished, and the fifth 

 hardly touched. The Ceylon Government applied to 

 Hooker, and though he was now eighty years of age, he 

 responded to the call. The completing volumes were issued 

 in 1898 and 1900. This was no mere raking over afresh the 

 materials worked already into the Indian Flora. For Ceylon 

 includes a strong Malayan element in its vegetation. It 

 has, moreover, a very large number of endemic species, and 

 even genera. This last floristic work of Sir Joseph may be 

 held fitly to round off his treatment of the Indian Peninsula. 

 His last contribution to its botany was in the form of a 

 ' Sketch of the Vegetation of the Indian Empire,' including 

 Ceylon, Burma, and the Malay Peninsula. It was written 

 for the Imperial Gazetteer, at the request of the Government 

 of India. No one could have been so well qualified for this 

 as the veteran who had spent more than half a century in 

 preparation for it. It was pubHshed in 1904, and forms 

 the natural close to the most remarkable study of a vast 

 and varied Flora that has ever been carried through by one 

 ruling mind. 



Such was the main channel of the enterprise ; but the 

 work overflowed into many subsidiary channels. Witness 

 Hooker's numerous contributions on Indian subjects at this 



