Description

An inventory that turns Latin names into living presence: John Cameron's Catalogue Of Plants in the Botanical Garden, Bangalore, and its Vicinity reads like a nineteenth-century flora in ledger form, an indispensable botanical garden plant guide that names, situates and explains. A practical, scholarly, beautiful guide. Meticulous listings, locality notes and terse diagnostic remarks make it not merely a plant species catalogue but a functional plant identification manual for anyone tracing the native plants of Bangalore or surveying the wider flora of southern India. More than a mere list, Cameron's observations reveal the rhythms of plant life across garden beds, avenues, plantations and adjoining countryside, and they map a chapter of colonial India natural history. Read with a modern eye, the catalogue supports historical ecology and taxonomic work, aiding researchers who reconstruct past distributions and examine plant introduction and acclimatisation. As a historical botany reference it is invaluable to botanists and horticulturists; librarians, students and field naturalists will prize it as an academic research resource that clarifies provenance, nomenclature and habitat. Casual readers drawn to place and provenance will find accessible entries and locality snapshots that illuminate Bangalore botanical history, while collectors of classic scientific works will appreciate the catalogue's place among Cameron botanical works. Whether consulted in the field as a plant identification manual or used at the desk for comparative study, the volume bridges practical utility and cultural memory, offering insight into nineteenth-century flora and the horticultural practices of its time. The clarity of its entries makes the catalogue easy to consult yet rich enough to reward archival and field work: an aid to herbarium projects, restoration initiatives and anyone charting botanical change. Republished by Alpha Editions in a careful modern edition, this volume preserves the spirit of the original while making it effortless to enjoy today, a heritage title prepared for readers and collectors alike.