MATERIALS FOR A FLORA OF THE MALAYAN PENINSULA. 23 
— out of preceding authors (like Nyman’s European work), but 
s had to be worked up from the material at Kew, the British 
ey and the Linnean Society. The Flora of British ine has 
now been eighteen years in publication ; and, as in the case of all 
works so long in hand, the scale has grown enormously. In pe 
of the Orders in the earlier volumes, hardly any material beyond 
the Indian was compared; the specific description of an important 
this 
the ‘Oniate- lately published, especially those done by Sir J. D. 
Hooker himself since he has been less distracted by official cares, 
the 
Review of the Order. This development of scale has been pare 
especially from the Malay Peninsula. The Orders Laur inew, 
oe Cupulifere, &c., have been largely elaborated from 
terial received from Dr. Kin long since the earlier volumes of 
the Flora of British India were published. 
Sir ooker’s great undertaking has thus become a 
monumental work,—on which all the future botany of British India 
will be grounded ; but its very magnitude limits its immediate use- 
fulness. Few persons, except professional botanists, can really use 
a — describing 17,000 species; an English resident in Tenas- 
rim or Travancore does not want a book encumbered with 
* ae of thousands of plants that grow in the dry north- 
western area, or in the temperate Himalaya. It was always 
min 
aint g of India should be dug. Dr. Trimen has been already 
ged for some ay on the yrepaneion of a Flora of Ceylon; 
pe Dr. King has now commenced the publication of a Flora of the 
Malay Peninsula, bebre the Flora of British India is completed. 
That completion appears now within measurable distance ; and, as 
soon as that work is completed, mere compilations out of it of the 
‘Flora of Bengal”’ took including Himalaya), the Flora of the 
Punjab with Bopneds ana” (not including the Himalaya), may be 
worth preparing by mere book-making for the use of the Government 
secretariat, civil ines: and planters. The object of accomplished 
botanists, however, like Trimen and King, i is not merely to abstract 
add to the dry 
among it; and to describe further in their proper places the new 
species that have been discovered since the date that the genus ‘at 
treated of in the Flora of British Ind Any province will 
tunate that gets its local Flora ened by a skilled botanist, vo 
of by a talented assistant-secretary. 
The first question will be, What constitutes a convenient pro- 
vince for a local Flora? It must not be too large; it is to be feared 
that a local Flora of Ceylon will make a book cambios, for general 
use. In their Introduction to the Flora of British India, Hooker, 
