170 



NA TURE 



[December 25, 1902 



it did, the monument of two great men's work, but un- 

 connected with any organisation, either official or educa- 

 tional ; other countries have been only too anxious to 

 foster and develop any living starting point they could 

 find. A. D. H. 



A HIMALAYAN LOCAL FLORA. 

 Flora Simlensis : a Handbook of the Flowering Plants 



of Simla and the Neighbourhood. By the late Colonel 



Sir H. Collett, K.C.B ., F.L.S. Pp. lxviii + 652. 



(Calcutta and Simla : Thacker, Spink and Co. ; 



London : W. Thacker and Co., 1902.) 

 A^7"HEN, in 1897, Sir Joseph Hooker wrote his preface 

 * * to the final volume of the " Flora of British 

 India," he gave it as one of the chief uses of his great 

 work that it would "facilitate the compilation of local 

 Indian floras." We believe that since that book began 

 to issue, the handbook before us is the first general 

 local flora that has been prepared for India, though 

 various floras for forest purposes only have already 

 appeared. Other general floras, for what are wider 

 areas, are in course of preparation for Bengal, Bombay 

 and the Upper Gangetic Plain ; but although these 

 floras will apply to whole provinces, or at any rate 

 to areas as large as provinces, they will, none of 

 them, cover so wide a vertical range, for the late Sir H. 

 Collett's handbook practically treats of plants growing at 

 all altitudes, from the Himalayan valleys only a little 

 raised above sea-level to elevations of 12,000 and even of 

 16,000 feet. The area taken up is not one of exact geo- 

 graphical limits, but, as the author has said :— 



" I have assigned no strictly defined limits to the 

 ' Flora,' believing that this would answer the require- 

 ments of students better than if I were to confine it, for 

 instance, to the territorial limits of the Simla Munici- 

 pality or any other arbitrarily fixed boundaries." 



It seems, however, to include every plant which a 

 Simla botanist is likely to meet with in his rambles, and 

 we feel sure that the book will be much appreciated, 

 though we cannot avoid a feeling of great regret that its 

 author has not lived to enjoy the pleasure he looked for- 

 ward to of knowing that he had done something to help 

 those who are already students of his favourite science, 

 and perhaps to induce more of those Indian officers who 

 want a pursuit to occupy their leisure time, to follow in 

 his footsteps and study the plants of the forests, glens 

 and slopes of the Simla mountains. 



It has not been an uncommon thing at Simla to hear the 

 wish expressed that someone would publish a handbook 

 of a not too difficult scientific character, giving the names 

 and descriptions of the chief plants ; and, as the author has 

 explained in his preface, it was with the desire of supply- 

 ing this want that he commenced his work. A careful 

 examination of the book shows that his efforts have been 

 successful. The descriptions are concise and couched in 

 the simplest language ; the analyses lead easily to the 

 genus and species required ; while the excellent pen and 

 ink drawings prepared by Miss M. Smith, of Kew, will be 

 a great additional help to those who consult the work. 

 These drawings have been judiciously selected, to illus- 

 trate, not only the chief genera and species, but also the 

 most common and conspicuous plants to be met with in 

 Simla and its neighbourhood. 

 NO. 173O, VOL. 67] 



In addition to the characters of thenatural orders, genera 

 and species, and to analyses and an account of the geo- 

 graphical distribution of the plants, many useful notes are 

 given which are sure to be of interest. As a sample may 

 be cited the brief account of the method of fertilisation of 

 Roscoea, a genus of gingers with purple flowers, where 

 the mechanism by which the anthers are caused to shed 

 their pollen on the backs of the insects which visit them 

 is shown to be similar to that of the quite different genus 

 Salvia in Labiatae. The derivations of the generic 

 names have been duly explained, and wherever it has 

 seemed of interest, reference has been made to such 

 books as Darwin's " Origin of Species," Fritz Midler's 

 " Fertilisation of Flowers " and Kernels " Natural 

 History of Plants." It is clear that Sir Henry Collett 

 took the greatest pains to make his book as useful as 

 possible, and it is well that the pioneer of Indian local 

 floras will be such an excellent model for future work of 

 the kind. To the author, as every page of his book shows, 

 his work must indeed have been a labour of love. It 

 will be useful to residents and visitors, not only in Simla, 

 but in the other hill resorts in the Punjab, while even in 

 the more easterly ones — Chakrata, Mussooree, Naini- 

 Tal — where the flora is richer, the book will be of con- 

 siderable help to those interested in plants. 



Besides Sir H. Collett's own preface, the descriptive 

 portion of the work is preceded by an " In Memoriam " 

 notice of the author by Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., 

 F.R.S., the Director of Kew, and by an " Introduction " by 

 Mr. W. B. Hemsley, F.R.S., the curator of the herbariumat 

 the Royal Gardens. In his notice, Sir W. T. Thiselton- 

 Dyer gives a brief account of the life of the author, who, 

 during a long and distinguished career as a soldier, 

 studied science, and especially botany, in his leisure 

 moments, and after his retirement in 1893 commenced 

 the present work, which he only just lived to complete. 

 Sir William finishes his notice by saying : — 



" No one who has ever come to work among us at Kew 

 has more completely won the affectionate regard of 

 everyone with whom he has come in contact." 



In his "Introduction," Mr. Hemsley gives a brief 

 account of the geography of Simla, of its vegetation and 

 of the chief botanists whose collections have been utilised 

 in the preparation of the handbook. Some idea of the 

 extent of the flora of the small Himalayan area to which 

 it refers is obtainable from the fact that the handbook 

 describes no less than 1326 species belonging to 639 

 genera and 113 natural orders. 



We may conclude this brief account of a noteworthy 

 botanical handbook with the following extract from the 

 address of the president at the anniversary meeting of 

 the Linnean Society on May 24 last : — 



" In Sir Henry Collett we lose an accomplished 

 botanist who was also a gallant soldier and a capable 

 administrator, a combination of qualities that seems to be 

 peculiarly British. It would not be easy to estimate how 

 much this Society, and other kindred societies, owe to 

 the public services, and more particularly the Indian, for 

 the invaluable recruits whom we continually draw (rom 

 their ranks." 



We can hope that the " Flora Simlensis " will prove as 

 enduring a memorial of its author as the record of his 

 achievements, military and administrative, is likely to be 

 in the history of the Indian Empire. J. S. G. 



