The object of this work is restricted and is entirely practical. It is intended for Foresters and others, who may wish to make themselves acquainted with the immense variety of trees, shrubs, climbers, bamboos and palms in the British Indian Empire. Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula are not included, and the book is limited to ?owering plants; tree-ferns I have not been able to deal with. In this study the first step necessarily is to determine the name of a plant met with, and my principal aim has been to facilitate this difficult operation. To some extent I am told this has been accomplished for a portion of the Empire by the Forest Flora of north-west and Central India, which was commenced by the late Dr. Lindsay Stewart and completed by me in 1874.