TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K. 911 
the aid of other Botanists, a Flora of the Indian Empire, conceived on a smaller 
scale and written in the English language. His proposals for this work were 
accepted and officially sanctioned by the Duke of Argyll while he was Secretary 
of State for India. ‘The first part of this great work was published in 1872 and 
the last in 1897. In the execution of this great undertaking Sir Joseph had the 
assistance of Mr. C. B. Clarke, who elaborated various natural orders ; of Mr. J. G. 
Baker, who worked out Leguminose and Scitaminee, and of Sir W. Thiselton Dyer, 
Messrs. A. W. Bennett, Anderson, Edgeworth, Hiern, Lawson, Maxwell Masters, 
Stapf, and Gamble. The greater proportion, however, of the book is Sir Joseph’s 
own work, and a noble monument it forms of his devotion and genius. 
Since the date of Sir Joseph Hooker’s visit to India, by far the most important 
Botanical work done in India has been that of My. C. B. Clarke. Rather than 
attempt to give any appreciation of my own of Mr. Clarke’s labours (which 
would be more or less of an impertinence), I may be allowed to quote from the 
preface to the concluding volume of the ‘Flora of British India,’ Sir Joseph 
Hoolker’s estimate of them. Referring to all the collections received at Kew 
since the preparation of the ‘ Flora’ was begun, Sir Joseph writes: ‘The first in 
importance amongst them are Mr. C. B. Clarke’s, whether for their extent, the 
knowledge and judgment with which the specimens were selected, ticketed, and 
preserved, and for the valuable observations which accompany them.’ Mr. Clarke 
has published numerous papers on Indian Botanical subjects in the Journals of the 
Linnean and other societies. He has issued as independent books monographs of 
Indian Composite and Cyrtandracce, the former in octavo, the latter in folio, and 
illustrated by many plates; and he is now engaged on his opus maximum, viz. a 
monograph of the Cyperacee, not only of India, but of the whole world; and to 
the completion and publication of this every systematic Botanist is looking forward 
with eager anxiety. 
During this second half of the century Dr. Thomas Anderson, who was for ten 
years superintendent of the Calcutta Garden, collected much; and he had just 
entered on what promised to be a brilliant career of Botanical authorship when his 
life was cut short by disease of the liver, contracted during his labours to establish 
the cultivation in British India of the quinine-yielding species of cinchona. 
Dr. Anderson was also the earliest Conservator of Forests in Bengal. Sulpiz 
Kurz, for many years Curator of the Calcutta Herbarium, also collected largely in 
Burma, and besides many excellent papers which he contributed to the ‘ Journal 
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ he prepared for Government an excellent 
manual entitled ‘ The Forest Flora of Burma.’ This was published in two volumes 
in 1877. Other collectors in Burma were Colonel Eyre (in Pegu), Mr. Burness 
(at Ava), and the Rev. Mr. Parish, to whom horticulturists are indebted for 
the introduction to Europe of the beautiful orchids of this rich province. 
And in this connection must be mentioned Mr. E. H. Man, C.I.E., who, 
although not himself a Botanist, has given for many years past the greatest 
possible help in the Botanical exploration of the Andaman and Nicobar groups 
of islands, our first knowledge of which was, by the way, derived from the 
collections made by the naturalists of the Austrian and Danish exploring expedi- 
tions. A large book on Burma, which contains a good deal of Botany, was 
published by an American missionary named Mason, who resided for the greater 
part of his working life in that country. General Sir Henry Collett, who com- 
manded a brigade during the last Burmese war, also made most interesting collec- 
tions in that country, the novelties of which were described by himself in 
collaboration with Mr. W. Botting Hemsley, of the Kew Herbarium, in the 
Linnean Society’s ‘Journal’ some years ago. Sir Henry Collett also collected 
much in the Khasia and Naga hills, and in the portion of the North-Western 
Himalaya of which Simla is the capital, and on these latter collections, together 
with the materials in Kew Herbarium, Sir Henry is now elaborating a local 
Flora of Simla. The preparation of a local Flora for an Indian district is 
en entirely new departure, and the publication of Sir Henry’s book, which is 
to be well illustrated, is looked forward to with. much interest. At rather 
an earlier period, Dr. Aitchieson, O.I.E., wasa diligent collector of the plants of the 
