Reviews

*Burkill, I.H.: Chapters on the history of botany in India, 1965, xi + 245 pp., 4 portr., 2 maps. Manager of Publications, Government of India Press, Delhi 8. Sh. 12/6, or $ 1.98. It was not necessary to mention that Burkill began compiling this book at the age of 81 to finish it at 93, for, although the last two chapters are miscellaneous in contents, it could as well have been written by a man thirty years younger. Everybody will regret that the book ends at the time Burkill’s own contributions to Indian botany began, notably about 1900. As for the period covered, and that is from the earliest beginnings, the book is a rich store of information. It was published in chanters in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 4 and has now, after considerable revision by the author, been brought out by the Botanical Survey of India, preceded by an Introduction by Father H. Santapau, the Director, who therein put Burkill’s considerable merits for Indian botany on record.