68 FLORA INDICA. 



tute the only herbarram of importance to which we have failed 

 to procure access, and we are hence unable to do our friend 

 that justice in the body of this work, to which, as the disco- 

 verer of many of the plants described, he is pre-eminently 

 entitled. 



13. The only other extensive collection in Great Britain is 

 the Hookerian Herbarium, in which our work is carried on. 

 This is beyond all doubt both the richest and best-named her- 

 barium in the world, and it possesses the rare advantage of 

 containing an extensive series of specimens of each species 

 from many countries and collectors, so preserved and arranged 

 that all may be brought at one time under inspection. For 

 these reasons (and from the extreme liberality of its owner) 

 the Hookerian Herbarium has been studied by most mono- 

 graphists at home and abroad, and possesses in consequence 

 an enormous proportion of authentically-named specimens, 

 by Arnott, Asa Gray, Bentham, Boott, Choisy, Decaisne, De 

 Vriese, Grisebach, Herbert, Lehmann, Liebmaun, Lindley, 

 Meisner, Miers, Miquel, Moquin-Tandon, Meyer, Munro, 

 Nees von Esenbeck, etc. etc., and illustrates the published 

 works of these and many other botanists, to an extent that 

 no other herbarium does. It is also enriched with many va- 

 luable manuscript notes, dissections, sketches, and remarks 

 by its possessor, and by M. Planchon, who was for some 

 years its curator. It would be out of place here to give a 

 history of the rise and progress of the Hookerian Herbarium, 

 or of the sources from which it is mainly derived; though 

 this would form a most interesting contribution to the litera- 

 ture of the science, and would include a history of the progress 

 of systematic and descriptive botany during the last half-cen- 

 tury. It is especially rich in Indian plants ; and an enumera- 

 tion of these, which is necessary, as they constitute a large 

 part of our materials, will give the reader an idea of the na- 

 ture of the abundant sources from which its riches are de- 

 rived. The Indian portion of the Hookerian Herbarium com- 

 prises the undermentioned collections. 



