NA rURE 



501 



THURSDAY, MARCH 29, li 



THE FLO WE RING PLANTS OF WESTERN 

 INDIA. 

 The Flowering Plants of Western India. By Rev 

 A. K. Nairne. 8vo. pp. 401. (London : W. H. Allen ; 

 and Co. Bombay: The Education Society's Press, j 

 Byculla.) 



NOW that the " Flora of British India," by Sir Joseph 1 

 Hooker and his helpers, is nearing completion, 

 we are sure to get works more or less founded upon it, 

 dealing with smaller areas which it includes. The first 

 portion of Trimen's " Flora of Ceylon " has already 

 appeared. This is a strictly scientific work, and a 

 thoroughly complete enumeration of the plants of the 

 island ; and now we have the present volume, which is 

 merely a popular account of the principal plants occur- 

 ring within the Presidency of Bombay, excluding Sindh. 

 The author, the Rev. Alexander Nairne, belonged to the 

 Bombay Civil Service, and made, whilst resident in 

 India, notes on the habit and character of the more 

 striking plants, which he saw, together with their native 

 names and uses. Previously to the present work the only 

 special books on the same district were the " Bombay 

 Flora," published in 1861 by Dalzell and Gibson (the 

 latter the energetic Conservator of Bombay Forests), and 

 the "Catalogue of Plants growing in Bombay and its 

 vicinity," which was published by Mr. Graham in 1839. 

 But one cannot omit reference to the names of Mr. Law 

 and Dr. Stocks. Mr. Law and Mr. Dalzell worked the Con- 

 can Flora most ably and energetically. Mr. Law resided 

 for many years at Tannah, near Bombay, and explored 

 the Northern Concan; while Mr. Dalzell chiefly employed 

 himself in the Southern Concan and adjacent province 

 of Canara. Dr. Stocks officiated for Dr. Gibson during 

 that gentleman's visit to Europe. He collected in Sindh, 

 and, amongst other plants, gathered the curious Gos- 

 sypium, which bears his name, the probable parent of all 

 the forms of Indian cotton, and also in the mountains of 

 the Concan, the small Impatiens Stocksii. Besides the 

 books mentioned, many Bombay plants are described in 

 Roxburgh's " Flora," and in Wight and Arnott's " Pro- 

 dromus," and many are figured in Wight's " Icones." 

 Mr. Nairne states that he knows the Concan fairly well, 

 which, with the ghauts which bound it on the east, are 

 botanically the richest part of the Presidency. He also 

 claims a fair acquaintance with the Deccan, but he has 

 never been in the Southern Maratta country at all, and 

 his acquaintance with Guzerat is decidedly hmited. The 

 mode in which the scientific part of this book is made 

 up is as follows : " The nomenclature and classification 

 are entirely those of Hooker's 'Indian Flora'; the 

 descriptions of orders are mainly Hooker's, but 

 with details from other writers. The descrip- 

 tions of genera are Hooker's, very much com- 

 pressed" ; so much compressed, we are afraid, as to 

 be in some cases quite unintelligible. As has before 

 been mentioned, the descriptions of species are from 

 the author's own notes, compared with those of other 

 writers, chiefly Hooker's and Dalzell's. The title appears 

 to us decidedly misleading (" The Flowering Plants of 

 NO. 1274, VOL. 49] 



Western India"), as one might naturally expect at least 

 an enumeration of all the Phanerogamous plants growing 

 within the Presidency, and this is far from being the case. 

 What will Mr. C. B. Clarke, the talented monographer 

 of the natural order Cyperacece, say when he sees that 

 his especial proteges find no place in the Flora.'* 

 Gra7ninecc are also omitted. Mr. Nairne states that 

 their flowers " consist only of bracts or scales," and does 

 not evidently consider these two orders sufficiently merit 

 the rank of flowering plants. The book, we are told, 

 is intended for two classes — " Firstly, the Englishmen 

 and Englishwomen whose duty calls them to Western 

 India, and who wish to know something about the trees 

 and flowers which surround them ; and secondly, the 

 educated natives of the country." It is a small octavo, 

 and can be easily carried for field work. The contents 

 consist of a prelude of several pages of quotations, 

 introduction, definition of terms used in the work, several 

 pages to explain the system of classification employed, 

 then the body of the work, and it concludes with a 

 couple of indices — one for Latin and English names, 

 and one for the native names. In the body of the work 

 you first get a conspectus of the orders, then unde?; each 

 order you get a more amplified description, a short key 

 to the genera, and then the species, for which no authori- 

 ties are given, are described briefly in f^nglish. The less 

 important species are described in smaller type, and a 

 quotation is generally added from a well-known writer. 



We are afraid much might be said in criticism of the 

 work. Taking Malvacece, for instance, on page 27, we 

 hardly think the generic characters are correct or suffi- 

 cient. The diagnostic character applied to Malva is 

 " Downy herbs, involucre of three distinct bracts," and 

 the author evidently has not grasped the fact that the 

 chief distinction between Sida and Abutilon is that in 

 the one the carpels are uniovulate, while in the other 

 they are multiovulate. We should also like to know why 

 Sida niysorensis and Sida cnneifolia {S. Schij7iperiana) 

 are omitted ? A quotation from Le Maout is inserted, 

 saying, " The plants of the order are all wholesome." 

 We think the conspectus of the orders ought to be 

 entirely revised, or almost rewritten. On page 138 

 we find a key to the orders of monopetalous 

 Exogens. No primary division is based on the posi- 

 tion of the ovary. Division {a), including Plumb- 

 aginecs, PrimiilacecB, Myrsinea;, &c., is characterised 

 by having " stamens 5, corolla regular," while 

 division {d), including RubiacecE (except Randia and 

 Gardenia), Loganiacece, Boraginece, Campanulacece, &c. 

 has " stamens 4 or 5, flowers regular." This is a dis- 

 tinction without a difference. Compositce is not included 

 in the conspectus, because " it is an order quite by itself 

 with flowers composed of many distinct perfect florets," 

 Sapotacece, Ebenacea, and Styracece are classed together 

 as " trees, almost all with many stamens." We are left 

 in doubt as to how we are to distinguish the one from 

 the other ; and here, as in several other cases, Mr. 

 Nairne has shirked his responsibilities. 



The Flora of the Bombay Presidency, as compared 

 with that of the Nilghiris, is poor in forest types. The 

 whole Concan is mu:h more open than Malabar, and 

 heavy forests are rarer, and many tropical Malayan 

 forms disappear and are replaced by such plants as grow 



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