88 FLORA INDICA. 



to banish prejudice from the domain of Systematic Botany 

 as effectually as it has been from some allied sciences^ which 

 have fortunately been most successfully cultivated by many 

 men of large experience and extensive attainments in collate- 

 ral branches of knowledge. 



B. Necessity of dividing India into provinces ; and principles 

 according to which it is proposed to be done. 



In order to define with accuracy, and at the same time in 

 an intelligible manner, the geographical range of the indivi- 

 dual species comprised within our Mora, it is necessary to di- 

 vide India into botanical provinces. This we have found a 

 very much more difficult task than might have been supposed, 

 partly from the constantly shifting political and other boun- 

 daries of our dominions and its subdivisions, and partly from 

 the necessity of selecting as far as possible such provinces 

 as are defined by physical features rather than by arbitrary 

 lines. We have devoted much time to a careful study of all 

 available information regarding the geography of British India, 

 ha^dng had recourse in every case to original documents, in 

 preference to the numerous maps on the physical geography 

 of India published in this country and on the Contiaent, 

 which have been compiled from these sources, and which, 

 however conspicuous for research, are unexceptionally ex- 

 tremely defective, owing to their authors not having that ne- 

 cessary general acquaintance with the country, which alone 

 could enable them to classify the thousands of facts they have 

 laboriously collected, and which are represented with distorted 

 effect in such maps. 



We enter upon our task with a lively sense of our inabi- 

 lity to meet the requirements of Botany on the one hand, 

 and of Geography on the other ; but it was imperatively ne- 

 cessary that we should, before any part of our Flora went to 

 press, decide upon the geographical divisions to be adopted 

 and the nomenclature to be employed. Though our conjoint 



