Getober 30, 1911.} Bibliography of the Botany of British India. Ixxix 
{From the JOURNAL OF THE Bompay NaturaL History Socrprty, 
October 50, 1911.] 
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE BOTANY OF BRITISH 
INDIA AND CEYLON. 
BY 
E. BLATTER, S. J. 
The idea of compiling a list of books and papers on Indian 
Botany first came to my mind some eight years ago when I came 
out to India and was quite at a loss to ascertain what had been 
published on the vegetation of this vast country. What was left 
in my memory of the study of the history of Botany was the 
vague idea that, once upon atime, some enterprising botanists and 
explorers had lived and worked and died under the tropical sun of 
Hindustan, that some of them had sent huge collections to various 
museums in England and France and Germany, and that others 
lived long enough, to commit their observations to writing, whilst 
a few of them had to be satisfiel with the fame of posthumous 
publications. But most of the names had escaped me; of some 
indeed I remembered the names exactly, but I did not 
quite recollect, what the bearers of the names had been doing, and 
of a great number who, I was sure, must have existed, I knew 
neither the one nor the other. 
In the course of time I made the discovery (which was not a 
little consoling to me) that a great many of my botanical col- 
leagues had to confess a similar ignorance. Under these circum- 
stances it was indeed gratifying to receive inquiries like these from 
various parts of India: ‘Could you recommend me a concise book 
dealing with the Botany of Rajputana?’ or: ‘I should be much 
obliged for a list of botanical books which have been issued on the 
flora of Hyderabad’, or some other time: ‘If it is not causing too 
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