INTRODUCTION. 
Ixv 
Gangetic Flora describing plants of the United Provinces of 
Agra & Oudh by Mr. J. F. Duthie, Flora of Bombay by 
Br. Theodore Cooke, Flora of the Central Provinces by 
Mr. Haines, Flora of Madras by Mr. Gamble, Panjab 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. H. Burkill ; 
of Bhotan and Sikkim recently by Messrs. Burkill and Smith ; 
of Cutch 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. Bahadurji 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 nse 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, ot- 
to) encouraging the systematic cultivation of medicinal plants indige 
nous to India ; 
(b) encouraging the increased use in Medical Dep6ts of drugs of known 
therapeutic value ; and 
(c) sanctioning the manufacture of stable preparations of certain drugs 
at the Dep&ts. 
Regarding the above the Government of India desire that the Committee 
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