PREFACE. 
P 
- 
Аз regards the smaller and more obscure species of orchids indigenous to the 
Eastern Himalaya, the period prior to the publication of Sir Joseph Hooker's account 
of the family in his Flora of British India was to most people one of comparative 
darkness. Descriptions of a number of them indeed existed, but these were scattered 
in the volumes of periodicals many of which were accessible only to botanical experss. 
А. large number of these descriptions had been brought together by Lindley in his 
fragmentary Orchidology of India, published in the Journal of the Linnean Society, 
and by Reichenbach filius in the sixth volume of Walper’s Annales. But the iden- 
tification of species by these means proved eminently uncertain and unsatisfactory. 
For many years Mr. Pantling had occupied his leisure by making drawings of the 
orchids found on the нн Cinchona Plantation in Sikkim, where he has lived 
since 1882. Тһе appearance of the parts of the Flora of British India containing 
Sir Joseph Hooker's account of the family, gave an impetus to Mr. Pantling’s studies ; 
and when he showed his drawings to me, I most strongly urged him to continue the 
series until it should include one of each species found in the Cinchona Plantation 
and its immediate neighbourhood. The preparation of these drawings gradually worked 
itself into a project for the preparation of a complete Orchid Flora of the Sikkim- 
Himalaya; each species to be illustrated by a life-size figure of the plant, accompanied 
by analyses of the parts of the flower on an enlarged scale. The liberality of the 
Government of Bengal made it possible to publish the projected work in the Annals 
of the Caleutta Garden, and it now takes form in the present volume, which is the 
joint produetion of Mr. Pantling and myself. 
The drawings from which the figures were lithographed were entirely the work of 
Mr. Pantling, my share in the production of these plates having been confined to 
the supervision of the lithographers who put them on the stone. For the exploration 
of the Alpine part of the country lying between the valley of the Great Rungeet 
and the higher snows, where it was believed some novelties might be бй, а 
small party of trained Lepcha collectors was sent during the hot ind rainy seasons 
of several successive years. These men were provided with a few swift coolies, by 
whom living plants of every species collected were quickly conveyed to Mr. Pantling 
who, while the plants were still fresh, made drawings of them. Asa precaution, 
the collectors were provided with a stock of Formaldehyd, in a weak dilution of 
which they were instructed to preserve inflorescences of every species collected. These 
Lepcha collectors, as the following pages show, discovered a considerable number of 
` species formerly unknown. F'or the . Mr. Pantling and myself are jointly 
responsible. j 
