P R E F A O E .
THE attempt here made to gire an account of tlie Orchids of the Western
Himalaya may he regarded as a supplement to the splendid work by Sir
George King and Mr. B. PantUng on the Orchids of the Sikkim Himalaya
which was published in 1898 ag Volume VIII of the Annals of the Eoyal
Botanic Garden, Calcutta. With Sir Joseph Hooker's monograph of the Orchids
of British India as a basis, and Sir George King's Sikkim Orchids as a model
for a local orchid-flora, the preparation of the present contribution has been
veiy greatly facilitated.
Of the many eminent botanists who contributed largely in by-gone years to
the orehidology of the Western Himalaya, the fonowiug names should be espeeiaUy
mentioned:—Govan, Boyle, Wallich, Jacquemont, Vieary, Falconer, Grifflth, Edo-eworth
Thomson, Madden, Strachey, Winterbottom, Heming and lady Dalhousie Thil
collections made daring more recent years by Aitchison, Brandis, Daridson C B
Clarke, Mackinnon, Gamble, lace and others have been the means of'addino'
considerably to our knowledge of the subject.
Since the publication of Sir Joseph Hooker's monograph of the Orchids of
British India, m 1890 further important additions have been made to the Orchid
flora of the Western Himalaya. Many interesting species were collected daring
my two botanical tours thi'oiigh Kashmir in 1892 and 1893, and in sabsenuent
years by specially trained native coUectors, who were sent to Hazara Kashmir
Chitral, Pangi, Garhwal, Kumaon and to the Sub-Huiialayan tracts of EohUkhmd
and N. Ondh.»
In a privately printed list of Shnla plants collected by Mr. Babington
Smith and Lady EUsabeth Smith thirty-two species of orchids are recorded- and
four years later (in 1903) Sir Henry CoUett's most excellent hook, the "'piora
Siuilensis," appeared, in which thirty-eight species are described, and seven of
these are figured.
' l i e drawings for the fifty-eight plates contained in the present work were
prepared under my supervision by H. Hormusji, for many years artist to the
Botanical Department of Northern India. These plates represent only such species
as have not ab-eady been figured in the Sikkim work, with one exception viz
Sabenuna lat,Um. a species which has been so frequently coufnsed with what is
now known under the name of R. BdgmooHMi Hook. f. (Platanthera acuminata
• I am s k a of tlii, opportuolli ol bdng , b l . to 1irf»g to noUo, tta oI ooo „1 t h™ n . i , W,
ANN. ROY. BOT. GARD., CALC., YOL. I X .