INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 89 



personal experience is very much greater than that of any other 

 naturalists, there are still large areas of the region under 

 consideration, of which we have no personal knowledge what- 

 ever : we do not therefore presume to consider our scheme as 

 established beyond the necessity of future modification; on 

 the contrary, we submit it with great diffidence to the criti- 

 cism of Indian geographers, and earnestly court inquiry into 

 its details. 



The physical featiires of the several provinces will be treated 

 in considerable detail. This seems called for by the general 

 want of accurate information on Indian geography, displayed 

 in many valuable works on various branches of Indian 

 science ; and this not only on the Continent, but quite as 

 conspicuously in England. It perhaps arises from the fact 

 that no physicist or naturalist has hitherto proposed such a 

 classified or systematic arrangement of habitats or locali- 

 ties, as may be readily acquired by the professed naturalist ; 

 though it should not be forgotten that it is primarily due to 

 the defective state of our education, which leaves otherwise 

 accomplished men so ignorant of the general features of the 

 geography of India, that when the demands of their profes- 

 sion or of science oblige them to study its details, they find 

 insuperable obstacles to their acquisition. At the commence- 

 ment of this essay it has been observed, that " Ind. Or." is 

 too often the sole indication of the native place of many ines- 

 timably valuable vegetable products, even in works of stan- 

 dard authority ; and when more detailed localities are given, 

 they are generally copied at random from the tickets of col- 

 lectors, or the catalogues of local botanists, and are in most 

 cases mis-spelt and equally unintelligible to the resident in 

 Europe and in India. Many botanists indeed seem tacitly 

 to admit that there is a recognized license to overlook both 

 generalities and specialities in treating of Indian plants, and 

 with the honourable exception of Dr. Royle we do not know 

 of one who has written extensively, and not availed him- 

 self of this license. Dr. Royle's great aim seems to have 



