INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 



In the following pages it is our intention not only to explain 

 the objects of the Flora Indica, and our reasons for under- 

 taking it, but also to dwell upon a considerable number of 

 topics having a direct bearing upon the study of Systematic 

 Botany, and upon the correct appreciation of which must de- 

 pend the progress which the student may make in this de- 

 partment of science. As however the principal aim of our 

 labours is to further the study of Botany in India, we shall 

 confine ourselves as much as possible to those points which 

 it is more particularly essential for the Indian botanist to 

 understand well, and we shall illustrate them by a reference 

 to the plants of that country. The chief subjects treated of 

 in this Essay will therefore be : — 



1. The object, scope, and design of the Flora Indica, and 

 our motives for undertaking it. 



2. General considerations connected with the study of sys- 

 tematic and descriptive botany. 



3. The influence of variation, the origin of species, specific 

 centres, hybridization, and geographical distribution, on the 

 views taken by ourselves of species, and of the right manner 

 in which they should be treated, and in which their affinities 

 should be developed. We consider these theoretical points 

 to be inseparable from a philosophical study of plants, and 

 we believe it to be essential that systematic authors should 



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