o<i MONTHLY. 0* 
Vol, XIX. 
COLOMBO, JUNE 1st, 1900. 
No. 12. 
A SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
INDIAN BOTANY.* 
BY .SIR. GEORGE KING, K.C.I.E., LL.D., JI.B., F.R.S. 
f Concluded from -page 731.) 
HE preservation in good condi- 
tion of a type specimen is there- 
fore, from the foint of view of 
a Systematic Botanist, as im- 
portant as is the preservation 
to the British merchant of the 
standard pound weight and the 
standard yard measure on which 
tlie opeiations o£ British commerce depend. ' Types ' 
also stand to the Systematic Botanist much in the 
sania relation as the national records do to the national 
historian. The latter aie guarded in the Record Office, 
I nnderstanti, with all the skill which the makers of 
fire-proof, damp-proof, and burglar-proof depositories 
cm suggest. If, however, the type of a species happens 
to be deposited at Kew, what are the probabilities 
of its preservation ? Such a type at Kew is incor- 
porated in what is admitted to be in every sense 
the largest and, for its size, the most accurately 
named, the most easily consulted, ami therefore the 
most valuable Herbarium in the world, the destruction 
of which would be a calamity commensurate in ex^eut 
with that of the burning of the Library at Alexandria. 
One might therefore reasonably expect that a pi.uple 
who rather resent being called a ' nation of shopkeepers ' 
would feel pride in providing for this priceless na- 
tional collection a home which, although perhaps 
somewhat inferior to that provided for the National 
Historical Records, might at least be safe from fire. 
This expectation is not fulfilled. The infinitely valu- 
able Kew Herbarium and library have no safer home 
* From the Report of the Sixty-ainth Meeting of 
the British A.'sociation for the Advancement of 
Science held at Dover in geptembec, 1899. 
than an old dwelling-house on Kew Green, to which 
a cheap additional wing has been built. The floor, 
galleries, and open inner roof of this additional wing 
are constructed of pine coated with an inflammable 
varnish, and on the floor and galleries are arranged 
cabinets falso made of pine-wood), in which the 
specimens f which are mounted on paper) are lodged 
The provision of a fire-proof building, capable of ex- 
pansion as the collections extend, is surely not beyond 
the means of an exchequer which last year netted 
over one hundred and six millions sterling of revenue. 
On behalf of the Flora of India, I venture to express 
the hope that the provision of a proper home for its 
types may receive early and favourable consideration 
by the holders of the national purse strings. But 
India is by no means the only portion of the Em- 
pire interested in this matter, for the types of the 
Australasian Floras, those of a large part of the 
North American Flora, and those of many species 
inhabiting countries outside British rule or influence, 
find their resting-place at Kew. The safe custody 
of the Kew Herbarium is, therefore, not merely a 
national, but a cosmopolitan responsibility. 
In this address I have hitherto made little reference 
to Cryptogamic and Economic Botany. As regards 
Cryptogamic Botany there is a little to relate. Ex- 
cept Griffith, no Indian Botanist of the earlier of 
the two periods into which I have divided my sketch 
ever did any serious work amongst nou-vatcular Crypto- 
gams. During the second period two men have done 
gallant work under difficulties which no one who has 
not lived in a tropical country can thoroughly ap- 
preciate. 1 refer to Drs. Arthur Barclay and D. D. 
Cunningham. The former made some progress in 
the study of Uredinous fungi, which was cut short 
by his untimely death, while the latter, in addition 
to his bacterial and other researches connected with 
the causation of human disease, conducted protracted 
investigations into some diseases of plants of fungal 
