High Altitude Flowering Plants of West Himalaya

The fascinating flora of the high altitude in the Himalaya has attracted worldwide attention. Royle’s Illustration of the Botany of the Himalayan Mountains published more than  125 years ago was, perhaps, the first book to give an extensive account of the flora of the western Himalaya. There have been many more [publications since then including the illustrated works of Coventry and of Blatter on the flowering plants of Kashmir. These books are not out of print and are so rare they are not easily available even for students of specialist interest. Hooker’s Flora of British India published during the closing quarter of the nineteenth century described all the plants known from the area at that time. Since the publication of this magnum opus of Indian Botany, there have been numerous additions to the Flora and in recent years the application of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature has resulted in the Change of many established names of these Himalayan Plants. An extensive literature has been built up on the subject which is too technical for the average reader. The Himalayan flora is not familiar to most people in our country thought they may have heard of the beauty of the plants of these heights. There is, therefore, a great need for a popular publication on the subject which would bring these charming plants within the comprehension of the general reading public, students of Botany, travellers and other lovers of nature. The line diagrams of plants illustrated are drawn from the dried speciousmens preserved in the Northern Circle Herbarium and are thus original. Mr. G.N. Madhwal made these diagrams and the author wishes to express his thanks to him for this assistance. The photograph of Corydalis crassissima was also taken by Mr. Madhwal while the other four photographs were taken by the author. During the writing of this book, the excellent library and herbarium facilities of the forest research Institute were at all times freely available to the author and he takes this opportunity to thank the President and other officers of the Institute for this generous help.