ACTA ET AGENDA. 569 



to promote this great national work, though strongly memorialized by 

 the British Association ; yet the first volume appeared in 1855. 



In 187£ ! the Secretary of State for India in Council, the Duke of 

 Argyll, gave instructions for a flora of British India to be prepared 

 under the supervision of Joseph Hooker. The gigantic work, con- 

 sisting of seven volumes, was completed in 1897. 



Of the more recent floras on Bombay and Sind plants I must mention 

 " Practical Remarks on the Plants of Sind " published by J. E. Stocks 

 in 1848 ; " The Bombay Flora or short descriptions of nil the indigenous 

 plants " by Nioholaus A. Dalzell and Alexander Gibson, (Bombay, 

 1861 ) ; a " Catalogue of the Economic Products of the Presidency of 

 Bombay, " compiled by Assistant Surgeon Birdwood, (Bombay, 1862) 

 The botanical volume of the Gazetter of the Bombay Presidency 

 (Vol. XXV, 1886) contains " Useful Plants of the Bombay Presidency" 

 by J. 0. Lisboa, " Botany of the Bombay Presidency" by W. Gray, 

 and a " List o€ Gujarat Trees " from materials supplied by G. H. D. 

 Wilson and J. G. McRae. The year 1894 brought us the 

 " Systematic List of the Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Climbers of the 

 Bombay Presidency "by W. A. Talbot. J- The want of a forest 

 handbook led to the preparation of this work, the same want which 

 induced Beddome to write his " Flora Sylvatica " of Madras, Sulpiz 

 Kurz to publish the " Forest Flora of British Burma," and D. 

 Brandis to complete the " Forest Flora of North-West and Central 

 India, " which had been commenced by J. Linsay Stewart. 



A good deal of work and an indispensable one for the writer of a 

 flora, especially if he is far away from the country whose plants he 

 is going to describe, has been done by various collectors in different 

 parts of the Presidency. Stocks collected plants in Sind, Schmidt in 

 Kanara, Law in Bombay, Dalzell in the Konkan, Sykes and Gibson in 

 the Deccan. It would be unjust not to mention here the work done by 

 G. M. Woodrow. His continued explorations of our country and his 

 extensive knowledge of plants enabled him to publish a nearly complete 

 catalogue of the " Flora of Western India. " 2 



These are the men who by their labours directly or indirectly 

 influenced the development of a scientific flora of the Bombay Pre- 

 sidency. It was a slow but uninterrupted progress, occupying a time 



1 A new enlarged edition appeared in 1902. 



2 In the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, Vols. XI, XII, XIII. 



