The Dictionary has been under preparation by the Botanical Survey of India for several years. It does not claim to be a text-book of systematic botany, nor a flora of India or that of any of its states. After the discovery of some of the wonderful medicinal properties of Rauvolfia serpentina in the early fifties of this century, there has been a great awakening of interest in the study of Indian plants. The interest is no more confined to botanists, herbalists, or medical practitioners, but has extended among the educated classes throughout India.
The Dictionary gives the generic names of Indian plants in alpha-betical sequence together with their families. In all 2,890 genera (Gymnosperm, 27; Monocotyledons, 677; and Dicotyledons, 2,186) belonging to 328 families are mentioned. The six dominant families of flowering plants in India, in numerical sequence of their genera, are: Gramineae (253), Compositae (159), Orchidaceae (136), Papilionaceae (121), Rubiaceae (89) and Acanthaceae (81). For every genus its habit and the total number of species found in the world as well as in India are given. Some of the more common species occurring in India are listed. Well established local or regional name(s) of the species and their important economic uses, if any, are also given, For the benefit of layman, as far as possible, technical terms have been avoided in the description of plants.
Some of the botanical names in the Dictionary vary from those published in the floras of the country; in such cases the genus is listed under the new name, but a reference is often given to the older name. Also the older name is listed at the appropriate place with a cross reference to the new name accepted in the Dictionary.
Most of the literature references cited along with the generic entries have been unusually abbreviated to economize space; a list of such abbreviations along with the full titles and other details of the references has been provided,
In various floras so far published, the geographical expressions have not been consistently used. As for example, the expression 'Western Peninsula' used by Sir J. D. Hooker in the Flora of British India denotes the whole of the Indian Peninsula, his Eastern Peninsula being Malaya; but in many later floras and in the Dictionary the former term has been used to denote only the western parts of the Indian Peninsula. In this Dictionary the regions of plant-distribution are mainly based on the floristic regions described by Sir J. D. Hooker. in A Sketch of the Flora of British India, 1904, and are as follows:
1. Eastern Himalayas: From the Mishmi Hills, through Bhutan to Nepal at an altitude of 1000 m or above.
2. Western Himalayas: From western Nepal westwards to Jammu and Kashmir, at an altitude of 1000 m or above.
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