( 3 ) 



The organization, some years ago, by the Supreme Government of India, of 

 a botanical survey of the Empire, gave an othcial impetus to a scheme Ion"- 

 projected and desired by Indian botanists for the preparation and publication 

 of such floras. A beginning has now been made in the realization of this 

 project by the publication, under the auspices of the Secretary of State for 

 India, of a first part of a Flora of the Bombay Presidency. This is the 

 work of Dr. Theodore Cooke, for many years Principal of the College of 

 Science at Poena, and for some time Director of the Botanical Survey of 

 Western India. Similar Floras of the North-Western Provinces of the 

 Panjab, of the North-Westeru Himalaya, and of Bengal proper, ai-e under- 

 stood to be well advanced towards publication. A local Flora of the country 

 round Simla (the summer capital of the Indian Empire), prepared by Major- 

 General Sir Henry CoUett, K.C.B., at his own cost and without Government 

 assistance, is now being passed through the press, and it is to be hoped that 

 the preparation of official Floras for the provinces of Assam, Madras, and 

 Burmah may soon be arranged for. The Malayan provinces of Wellesley, 

 Penang, Malacca, and Singapore were removed, shortly before the com- 

 mencement of the preparation of Sir Joseph Hooker's Flora, from the 

 administration of the Viceroy of India, and were formed into a colony under 

 the designation of the Straits Settlements. The preparation of a special 

 Flora of these provinces ceased, therefore, to be a responsibility of the 

 Indian Government. The responsibility has, however, been accepted by the 

 Straits Government ; and precursors to a complete Flora, not only of the four 

 pro\'inces just mentioned, but of all the remaining provinces of the Malav 

 Peninsula, have been for some years in course of publication in the Journal 

 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, under the title, " Materials for a Flora 

 of the Malay Peninsula," and in the Journal of the Straits Settlements, in 

 the form of complete accounts of various mouocotyledonous families bv 

 Mr. H. N. Ptidley. 



Dr. Cooke's appearance as the pioneer of this enterprise must be hailed 

 with satisfaction by everybody interested in the spread of botanical know- 

 ledge amongst our Indian fellow-subjects ; but it is sincerely to be hoped 

 that the scheme thus inaugurated may be carried through to the end at the 

 high level of excellence at which it has now been begun. In this first part 

 of Dr. Cooke's book the natural orders from Itanunculacece to liutacece are 

 dealt with, the sequence followed being that of Hooker's Flora. The part 

 contains 192 pages, and gives descriptions of 335 indigenous species, and of 

 a few introduced plants which have become naturalized. Of these species, 

 no fewer than 130 are absent from Dalzell's census of the corresponding 

 orders made in 1861 — a signal proof of how much has been done in the way 

 of exploration during the last forty years. Dr. Cooke's descriptions are in 

 the form of those of Bentham in his Floras of Australia and Hong-Kon"- • 

 and in crispness and graphic force they remind one of those in that excellent 

 but too much forgotten work, Wight and Arnott's Prodromus Florce Pe^iin- 

 sulce Indica^. Excellent generic and specific keys are supphed, and the date 

 of the original publication of each specific name is given immediately after 

 the name of its author. 



In a Flora which is primarily intended for use by persons who are not 

 botanical experts, full citations of sj-nonyms (some of which are often 



