I. INTRODUCTION. 
THE completion of the Flora of British India, which for over 
@ quarter of a century (1872-97) absorbed much of the attention 
seventh and last volume of the Flora, Sir Joseph describes it as 
“a pioneer work which, besides enabling botanists to name with 
Some accuracy a host of Indian plants, may, I hope, serve two 
higher purposes: to facilitate the compilation of local Indian 
One period having ended, a new one must begin. The efforts 
of Indian botanists have for the past thirty years been largely 
devoted to the accumulation of material calculated to facilitate 
the preparation of-the Flora of British India ; they must now 
be directed to the compilation of smaller works, compact in form 
and concise in style, dealing with the vegetation of specific areas 
within that Indian Empire which is served by the Flora. This 
Empire, in the botanical sense, includes, besides those territories 
that are under the control of the Government of India, the Island 
of Ceylon, the Malayan Peninsula, and the Himalayan regions of 
Nepal and Bhutan. 
A rather formidable difficulty, however, confronts those who 
would decide what the limits of the specific areas to be dealt with 
in such local Floras shall be. Putting aside for the moment 
the Malayan and the Indo-Chinese possessions of Britain, and 
neglecting the huge belt of hill-country which extends along the 
Himalayas from the Hindu Kush to the Mishmi and the Kachin 
