732 
THE TIIOPICAL AGRICTLTURIST. [May 1, 1900. 
lor Mr. fathcart, a number of the Civil SerTice of 
India, and (3) his classic ' Himalayan Journals' 
—a bock which remains until this day the richest 
repertory of information concerning the botany, geo- 
graphy, and anthropology of the eastern Himalaya. 
A remoter result was the appearance in 1855 of the 
first volume of a ' Flora Indica,' projected by himself 
and his friend Dr. Thomson. The first half of this 
volume is occupied by a masterly intro uctory essay 
on Indian Botany, of which it is hardly possible to 
overrate the importance. This remarkable essay con- 
tains by far the most important contribution to the 
Physico-Geographical Botany of India that has ever 
been made, and it abounds in sagacious observations 
on the limitation of species and on hybridisation, 
besides containing much information on the history 
of Indian Botanical collections and collectors. The 
taxonomic part of the book was cast in a large 
mould, and the descriptions were written in Latin. 
Unfortunately the condition of Dr. Thomson's health 
and the pressure of Sir Joseph's official duties at 
Kew mad« it impossible that the book should be 
continued on the magnificent scale on which it had 
been conceived. After a period of about twelve years 
Sir Joeeph, however, returned to the task of pre- 
paring, with the aid of other Botanists, a Flora of 
the Indian Empire, conceived on a smaller scale and 
written in the English language. His proposals for 
this work were accepted and officially sanctioned by 
the Duke of Argyll while he was Secretary of State 
for India. The first part of this great work was 
published in 1872 and the last in 1897. In the ex- 
ecution of this great undertaking Sir Joseph had the 
aBsistance of Mr. C. B. Clarke, who elaborated va- 
rious natural orders; of Mr. J.G. Baker, who worked out 
Legtminosm and Scitaminea, and of Sir W. Thiselton 
Dyer, Messrs. Ai W. Bennett, Anderson, Edgeworth. 
Hiern, Lawson, Maxwell Masters, Stapf, and Gamble, 
The greater proportion, however, of the book is Sir 
Joseph's own work, and noble monument it forms of 
bid devotion and genius. 
Since the date of Sir Joseph Hooker's visit to India, 
by far the most important Botanical work done in 
India has been that of Mr. C. B. Clarke. Bather 
than attempt to give any appreciation of my own 
6f Mr. Clarke's labours (which would be more or 
less of an impertinence), I may be allowed to quote 
from the preface to the concluding volume of the 
'Flora of British India,' Sir Joseph Hooker's esti- 
mate of them. Referring to all the collections 
received at Kew since the preparation of the 
'Flora' was begun, Sir Joseph writes: 'The first 
in importance amongst them are Mr. C. B. Clarke's, 
whether for their extent, the knowledge and judge- 
ment with which the specimens were selected, ticketed, 
and preserved, and for the valuable observations which 
accompany them.' Mr. Clarke has publi.shed nnmer- 
our papers on Indian Botanical subjects in the Journala 
of the Liniiaean and other societies. He has issued 
as independent books monographs of Indian Coni- 
podte(f and Ciirfandracecc, the former in octavo, .the 
latter in folio, and illustrated by many plates ; and 
he is now engaged on his opM,? maximum, viz. a mono- 
graphy of the Gyperacem, not only of India, but of 
the whole world ; and to the completion and publi- 
cation of this every systematic Botanist is looking 
forward with eager anxiety. 
During the second half of the century Dr. Thomas 
Anderson, who was for len years superintendent of 
the Calcutta Garden, collected much ; and he had 
just entered on what promised to be a brilliant 
career of Bot'inic&l authorship when his life was 
out short by di.seaee of the liver, contracted during 
his labours to establish the cultivation in British 
India of the quinine-yieldiug species of cinchona. 
Dr. Anderst n was also the earliest Conservator of 
Forests in Bengal. Bulpiz Kurz, for many years 
Curator of the Calcutta Herbarium, also collected 
largely in Burma, and besides maijy excellent 
papers which he contributed to the 'Journal of 
the Asatic Society of Bengal,' he prepared for 
Governmept an excellent manual entitled ' The Forest 
Flora of Burma.' This was published in two volames 
in 1877. Other collectors in Burma were Colone 
Eyre (in Pegu), Mr. Bnrness (at Ava), and the Rev. 
Blr. Parish, to whom horticulturists are indebted for 
the iniroduction to Europe of the beautiful orchids 
of this province. And in this connection must be 
mentioned R!r. E. H. Man, C.I.E., who, although 
not himself a Botanist, has given for many years 
past the greatest possible help in the Botanical ex- 
ploration of the Andaman and Nicobar groups of 
islands, our first knowledge of which was, by the 
way, derived from the collections made by the na- 
turalists of the Australian and Danish exploring 
expeditions. A large book on Burma, which contains 
a good deal of Botany, was published by an American 
missionary named Mason, who resided for the greater 
part nf his working life in that country. General 
Sir Henry CoUett, who commanded a brigade duiing 
tiie last Burmese war, also made most interesting 
collections in that country, the novelties of which 
were described by himself in collaboration with Mr 
W. Botting Herasley, of the Kew Herbarium, in the 
Linnsean Society's, 'Journal' some yeais ago Sir 
Henry CoUett also collected much in the Khasia and 
Naga hills, and in the portion of the North-Western 
Himalaya of which Simla is the capital, and on 
these latter collections, together with the materials 
in Kew Herbarium, Sir Henry is now elaborating a 
local Flora of Simla. The preparation of a local 
Flora for an Indian district is an entirely new de- 
parture, and the publication of Sir Henry's book 
which is to be well illustrated, is looked forward to 
with much interest. At rather an earlier period 
Dr. Aitclnieson, C.I.E., was a diligent collector of 
the plants of the Punjab and of the North-Western 
Frontier. Some results of his work are to be found 
in his 'List of Punjab Plants,' which was published 
in 1867. and in various papers which he contributed 
(some of them in conjunction with Mr. Hemeley) to 
the Linnsean Society and to the Botanical Society 
of Edinburgh. In Dr. G. Henderson s book on Yar- 
kand there are also descriptions of some plants of 
the extreme North-Western Himalaya and of Western 
Tibet. Ml. (now Sir George) Birdwood also made 
some contributions to the Botany of the Bombay 
Presidency. ' 
Five officers of the Indian Forest Department viz 
Dr. Lindsay Stewart, Colonel Beddome, Sir D. Brandia 
and Messrs. Talbot and Gamble, CLE., have within 
the past thirty years made important contributions 
to the systematic Botany of India. Dr. Stewart col- 
lected largely, and published in 1869 his 'Punjab 
Plants,' a book which gives a very imperfect im- 
pression of his acqnirements as a Botanist Sir 
Dietrich Brandis issued in 1874 his admirably ac- 
curate ' Forest Flora of the Noth-West Provinces of 
India,' illustrated by seventy excellent plates. Be- 
tween the years 1869 and 1873, Colonel Beddome 
issued his 'Flora Sylvatica of the Madras Presi- 
dency,' illustrated by numerous plates. He also 
published, between 1869 and 1874 a volume of de- 
scriptions and figures of new Indian planti, under 
the title ' Icones Plantarum Indiae Orientali* ' Col- 
onel Beddome is the only Indian Botanist of note 
except Griffith, Mr, C. B. Clarke, and Mr. 0 w' 
Hope, who has written much on Indian Ferns * Hi« 
two works, the ' Ferns of Southern I»dia ' and the 
'Ferns of British India,' published, the former in 
in 1863 and the latter between 1865 and 1870, practi- 
cally give a systematic account, together with ex- 
cellent figures, of the whole Pern Flora of India 
Of these excellent books a condensation in a popular 
and abridged form has also been issued. The fourth 
Forest officer who has published contributions to 
Systematic Botany is Mr. W. A. Talbot, whose 'List 
of the Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Climbers of the 
Bombay Presidency,' gives evidence of much careful 
re&eainh. And the fifth is Mr. J. S. Gamble, who 
besides amassing at his own expense probably the 
largest private collection of plants ever owned in 
India, has published a systematic account of the 
Indian Bambusece, a tribe of grasses which, from the 
