A Handbook of Excursion Flora of The Gangetic Plains and, Adjoining Hills (An Old and Rare Book)

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This treatise is intended to be a helpful guide to the under- graduate and post-graduate students of Botany. During the time of Botanical excursions at places far and near, the students usually collect many plants which can be identified from the book with the help of their teachers. Moreover, the students will be able to learn the vegetative and reproductive characters of the flowering plants, time of flowering, short ecological notes, vernacular names and currently accepted botanical names of the identified plants.

It contains short descriptions of a total number of 835 flowering plants. The plants are arranged in 129 families following the Bentham and Hooker's system of classification. The floral formulae of all the families have been mentioned at proper places. The book will also be useful to foresters, ecologists and other persons interested in taxonomy.

Dr. M. N. Sanyal (b. 1931) obtained B.Sc. degree from the Calcutta University in 1952. He worked as a Demonstrator and then as a Lecturer in Botany in St. Columbas College, Hazaribagh, Bihar for more than five years and obtained his M.Sc. degree from the Bihar University, Ranchi in 1960. He joined Ramananda College, Bishnupur (Bankura), West Bengal in 1960 as a Lecturer in Botany. He was awarded D.Phil. degree by the University of Calcutta in 1971 for his taxonomic work on the flora of Bankura district, West Bengal.

He made comprehensive botanical tours over different parts of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar (especially Chotanagpur), Orissa Delhi, eastern part of Rajasthan etc. and collected a good number of plants. Besides, he botanically explored the district of Bankura intensively and extensively for more than six years. His long experience in taxonomy has helped him in all respects in the preparation of the present treatise.

While joining the different Botanical excursions at places far and near, I realised that the students were keen to know the scientific names, families and local names of the plants collected by them. The names of plants are mentioned in different books on regional floras. But majority of the students are unable to purchase the costly floras; besides, most of the books are too voluminous to be easily carried to the field. The present treatise has been written with a view to avoiding these inconveniences.

The teachers joining the Botanical excursion usually make the scientific names and names of families of the collected plants known to the students who take note of them. Some- times it becomes a problem for a teacher to spell the latin names of the plants in a correct way. The book is intended to be a helpful guide to them in such cases.

The handbook contains a short description of each plant, the floral formulae of the families, short ecological notes and times of flowering. Upon hearing the scientific name of any plant from their teacher, the students can have an easy access to the short description of that species contained in the book and note the essential points. In this way their interest in the taxonomic studies will be enhanced and gradually they will be acquainted with the local floras.

Many common plants of West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and the adjoining states are mentioned in the book. It includes the vegetation of the Gangetic plains and the adjoining hills covering dense and thin forest areas. Many plants of the Chotanagpur plateau are included in it. The plants described in the book were mostly collected by the author and his students and were identified from the Central National Herbarium, Shibpur, Howrah. The arrangement of families in the book follows Bentham and Hooker's system.