In 1912 the late Mr. J.S. Gamble, C.I.E., F.R.S., was requested to undertake the preparation of a ‘Flora of the Presidency of Madras,’ a task for which he was remarkably well qualified owing to the exceptional knowledge of the Flora he had acquired during his long service in the Presidency as Conservator of Forests. During the course of his extensive and careful tours he made very complete collections of plants of the Presidency, and formed and maintained a very complete private Herbarium, which he subsequently presented to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Mr. Gamble retired for the Indian Forest Service in 1899, and at the time was fully occupied with the publication of his ‘Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula’. The First part of the ‘Flora of the Presidency of Madras’ (Ranunculaceae to Opiliaceae), consisting of 200 pages, was published in November, 1915, and the draft of the botanical portion of about the first 132 pages was prepared by Mr. S.T. Dunn, as explained by Mr. Gamble in his introduction to this part, since Mr. Gamblehad not at the time completed his Malayan work. The remainder of this part and the editing of the whole and the preparation of Parts II-VII inclusive was undertaken entirely by Mr. Gamble. Part II was published in 1918 and was followed by Part III in 1919, Parts IV, V, VI and VII in 1921, 1923, 1924 and 1925 respectively; Part VII being published very shortly after Mr. Gamble’s death on October 16th, 1925. The publication of this part carried the work to the end of the Euphorbiaceae. With the consent of the Government of India and of Mrs. Gamble, the completion of the ‘Flora’ was entrusted to Mr. C.E.C. Fischer, late of the Indian Forest Service, now Assistant for India, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, who had many years of experience in the Madras Presidency, and thanks to his knowledge of the flora the work has now been completed by the publication of Parts VIII-X in 1928, 1931 and 1934 respectively.
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