PREFACE. 
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Tue increasing interest taken in Botanical pursuits in this 
country will, it is hoped, be a. sufficient guarantee for the 
favourable reception of the present work. It is intended to offer 
to the student a manual of the Flora of the Continent of India 
south of the Himalayas, including the countries of Silhet, Assam 
and Chittagong to the eastward. A work of so comprehensive 
a character is at present a great desideratum, though we possess 
several local Floras of much value; and however premature it 
‘ might be considered, even now, to announce a complete descrip- 
tive catalogue of plants growing over so extensive an area as 
that contemplated, yet certainly there exist ample materials, 
which when carefully sifted and brought together, will make up 
a very considerable collection. 
The descriptions are limited to those Plants which are purely 
indigenous to the country, all those which have been introduced 
and naturalized, being purposely omitted. In all cases the 
synonyms have been included, though it has not been deemed 
necessary to give more than one or two references of identi- 
fication, and the selection whenever practicable, both in this 
as in the case of the engravings, has been from the works of 
writers on Indian Botany. 
As the work is intended to be practically useful to all classes 
and localities, an index of vernacular synonyms in five different 
languages is added, since the identification of a plant by the 
method of first ascertaining its native name, if not invariably 
successful in practice, will in most cases be so, and thus afford 
the greatest assistance to beginners. 
Every one must be aware how great are the disadvantages of 
a remote station in India where no libraries are available for 
