ACTA ET AGENDA. 563 



burning rays of the Indian sun spent their leisure hours and very often 

 their life in a noble scientific pursuit. In the same way we have a con- 

 densed history of Indian Botany in the names of the plants themselves, 

 in the generic as well as in the specific ones. In many circles, how- 

 ever, this kind of nomenclature is very ill-favoured; they prefer a 

 Greek name, though it does not, very often, on account of its being 

 unintelligible, or having an obscure origin, give any more information 

 as to the character of the plant, than v.g. Woodfordia, OsbecJcia, etc. 

 We are not of opinion that every one who, without knowing it, 

 discovered a new plant, should be immortalized by a specific or so 

 much as a generic plant name, but nobody will object to honouring a 

 well-merited naturalist by calling a flower after his name. 



Some twenty years back an Indian botanist wrote : " When the 

 botany of this Presidency and its dependencies shall have been fully 

 worked out, and sufficient materials collected, it is to be hoped that 

 some person may be found competent to undertake the task of prepar- 

 ing on a new and enlarged scale, a comprehensive scientific guide to 

 the Bombay Flora." That time, which Gray was speaking of, has 

 come, and we are going to see very soon the completion of Cooke's 

 volumes, a long desired and comprehensive guide to the Flora of the 

 Presidency. In order to give due honour to those able and enthusi- 

 astic men whose hard labours are bearing valuable fruit in our days, 

 I consider it appropriate to make a short inquiry into the development 

 of the new Flora. After this, I think, it will not be out of place to 

 ask ourselves : What has been achieved up to the present day, 

 and what will be our programme for the future, in order to keep 

 up the good repute of the disciples of the ct Scientia amabilis " in 

 India n 



During the first half of the XVI century the physician Cristobal da 

 Costa came all the way from Portugal to make his botanical observa- 

 tions in India. His notes were made use of by C. Clusius in his " Exo- 

 ticorum libri decern." 2 Henry van Rheede, the Dutch Governor of 



x . The following historical notes when not taken from the original, have been bor- 

 rowed chiefly from " A Memoir on the Indian Surveys," by CI. R. Markham, London, 1878. 

 Very useful was also K. R. Kirtikar's " Progress in Natural History during the last 

 Century," delivered before the Science Section of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society on the 19th January 1905. 



2 . C. Clusius: " Exoticorum libri decern," (Antwerp 1563, and Rome 1605). C. Clusius 

 (the Latin for Charles de L'Ecluse) was born at Arras (1526) and djed as Professor of Botany 

 at Leyden (1609). 



