Vlll PREFACE. 



over, such references would not have proved of the smallest use to the 

 Indian resident and traveller^ for whom this work is specially in- 

 tended. 



And here I must caution botanists against an over-reliance .upon 

 the names attached to the Indian collections which have been distri- 

 buted from Kew, first by myself, and latterly by the keeper of the 

 herbarium, between 1855 and 1870. These collections originally com- 

 prised about half a million of specimens, which had been accumulating 

 for upwards of thirty years, principally in the India House (where a 

 -great number were wholly destroyed by damp and vermin), at Kew, 

 and at the Linnean Society, and consisted chiefly of the collections of 

 Griffith, Falconer, Heifer, Royle, ©.Thomson, T. Thomson and myself. 

 Law, Stocks, Dalzell, and Gibson, together with the remainder of 

 Wallich's, and latterly Wight's. From these, after arrangement, up- 

 wards of 380,000 specimens were distributed in sets to public and 

 private museums in Europe, India, and America, every specimen bear- 

 ing a ticket with the name of the locality and collector, and that of the 

 plant, as far as it could be approximately determined. I have no reason 

 to suppose that these collections contain more errors in nomenclature 

 than do similar ones; but, as was explicitly stated when they were 

 sent out, such names are not to be regarded as authoritative. 

 • The area over which each species is distributed, is indicated by dis- 

 tricts; these districts or geographical areas being botanical regions, 

 which coincide in the main so closely with th6 well recognized territo- 

 rial divisions of India, that a strict definition of them is unnecessary : 

 an account of their limits and physical features will be found in the 

 Introductory Essay to the Flora Indica, and its accompanying maps. 



It has been a source of most sincere regret to me that a combination 

 of circumstances has prevented the continuation of the Indian Flora 

 upon the originally contemplated and more extended plan, under the 

 joint authorship of my old friend and fellow-traveller, Dr. Thomson 

 and myself. Other duties in our respective services necessitated it^ 

 postponement for a very long period, until indeed it became obvious 

 that years were not left to us, even could we have commanded sufficient 

 leisure, to finish so laborious an undertaking. 



