INTRODUCTION. lxv 



Gangetic Flora describing plants of the United Provinces of 

 Agra & Oudh by Mr. J. F. Duthie, Flora of Bombay by 

 Dr. Theodore Cooke, Flora of the Central Provinces by 

 Mr. Haines, Flora of Madras by Mr. Gamble, Pan jab Plants by 

 Colonel Bamber, Flora Simlensis by the late General Collett, 

 Plants of Baluchistan by Mr. Burkill, and Flora of Assam under 

 preparation by Rai Bahadur Upendra Nath Kanjilal, will be of 

 great help to those who are interested in the study of the medi- 

 cinal plants of this country. Of the Indian States of India, the 

 plants of Kashmir were worked out principally by Jacquemont 

 and Royle; of Nepal by Wallich and recently byMr. J. EL Burkill ; 

 of Bhotan and Sikkim recently by Messrs. Burkill and Smith ; 

 of Catch by Revd. Father Blatter ; of Mysore in the Gazetteer 

 Volume of that principality ; and of Baroda and Kathiawad 

 States by Mr. Jayakrishna Indrajit in Guzerati. 



V. 



The outlook is not so gloomy now as it was more than 

 twenty-five years ago, when I commenced the study of the sub- 

 ject. The Petit Laboratory established in Bombay was almost the 

 first institution intended to work out the pharmacology of Indian 

 drugs. For this purpose, the late Dr. K. N. Bahadur ji was 

 appointed to its charge. 



The Indian Medical Congress held in Calcutta in 1894 record- 

 ed the following resolution : — 



" That it be recommended to the consideration of the Government of India 

 that an extended use of indigenous drugs is most desirable." 



It was on this resolution that the Government of India 

 appointed the Indigenous Drugs Committee which held their 

 first meeting in Calcutta on January 3rd, 1896. In appointing 

 this Committee, it was stated, 



The points to which the Government of India desire more particularly 

 to invite the attention of the Committee, with a view to their careful consi- 

 deration, are the practicability, as well as the utility, of — 



(a) encouraging the systematic cultivation of medicinal plants indige 



nous to India ; 



(b) encouraging the increased use in Medical Depots of drugs of known 



therapeutic value ; and 



(c) sanctioning the manufacture of stable preparations of certain drugs 



at the Depots. 

 Regarding the above the Government of India desire that the Committee 



