Illustrations of Jammu Plants: A Supplement to Flora of Jammu and Plants of Neighbourhood: With General Key and Annotation

In the years that have gone by since the publication of author’s Flora of Jammu and Plants of neighbourhood in 1981 and illustrations to the Flora of Jammu in 1983, quite a few developments have been pressingly calling for updating these volumes in the wake of fresh information which presently is being sought to be transmitted through this supplement. As does its little suggest, illustrations comprise the mainstay of the publication, with as many as 381 pen and ink drawings distributed over 181 plants, these include drawings of nearly 101 species not included in toe original text, and another 280 species described previously but not illustrated. The supplement is thus assumed to be for those how already own the parent work or have access to a library possessing the same. The arduous task has been accomplished in compliance to the wishes of numerous users who have been benefited by the parent volume of illustrations. Though colour photography may well have enhanced the general form appeal of the supplement the author ahs recourse to black and white line sketches because of their preference by the systematic botanists as means of plant identification, another overriding factor which justifies the desirability of the supplement has been the deliberate or inadvertent human activity which has resulted in several species, chiefly weedy, gaining ingress and consistently flourishing or even actually spreading, as if they were a natural part of the flora of our area. In the second place, there happen to be some others which have come to be detected now as omissions because of their having escaped attention during preparation of the original work. The 101 species referred to in the preceding paragraph belong to these two categories of plants. These have been described in some detail after personally collecting them or examining from the herbaria. Along with, has been undertaken the listing alone of the previously described species with a reference made with each to the relevant page of the Flora of Jammu and Plants of Neighbourhood (abbreviated in the text as FI. JPNh.). In the process a couple of reported species not spotted in the area of work but commonly occurring in the immediate vicinity of the district boundary have also been accommodated. Besides, there have been twenty others, which though reported in literature for Jammu district, could no be located despite concerted forays. Such plants have simply been listed with a reference to the reporting authority. The supplement also undertakes to affect the necessary nomenclatural changes in agreement with the new information gleaned from various periodicals and modern taxonomic works. The alternations have accordingly been referred to the appropriate pages of the FI.JPNh.