892 FINAL BOTANICAL WOBK 



To J. S. Gamble 



March 24, 1902. 



What is now most wanted in the way of clearing the 

 ground for a better dealing with the provinces of India, 

 is a list of the genera, and another of the species common 

 to all tropical and sub-tropical Indian Provinces, and to 

 two or more of them, and so forth. This done we should 

 have the characteristics of each province in high relief. 

 As matters stand, it appears to me that the making my 

 sketch fuller would consist mainly in piling on each province 

 the names of species common to most or all of them. N 



I am glad that we agree as to the use of Indo. 



Your speculations on India as the alma mater of the 

 old world vegetation are very enticing. I have long dreamed 

 over the condition of India before the elevation of the 

 Himalaya, and always been brought up abruptly by the 

 question, * What was the nature of the vegetation of the 

 area now occupied by the Himal., and which has been 

 ousted by the elevation of the latter ? ' As also by the 

 indisputable fact, that the Himalaya powerfully affects 

 the climate of all India. The older you make the Deccan, 

 the more dissimilar must its climate and vegetation be to 

 those now existing. Elevations of sea bottom may help 

 to the understanding of migration, but not the nature of 

 by-gone vegetations. 



You assume that the Himalaya was under water when 

 the Deccan was still dry land, but the range must have 

 taken thousands of years to have reached its present height, 

 and if the European and Arctic Floras were developed 

 originally on the range, they must have had ancestors from 

 somewhere else. 



Then again, what was the vegetation during the period 

 of the gigantic Mammals now hoisted up 12-14,000 feet 

 by the Himalaya ? 



To the Same 



April 21, 1902. 



The Introductory Essay was all very well for half a 

 century ago, when all was darkness as far as a knowledge 

 of the Indian Flora as a whole was concerned, but I do not 

 see that subsequent collections have furnished material 



