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[ Volume 8 - No. 6 ]

About this Item

Title

  • Flora Arabica

Summary

  • Flora Arabica is a botanical catalog of the plants of the Arabia. The work is in six volumes covering the whole of the Arabian Peninsula: the extra-tropical west, the tropical west, the tropical east, and the extra-tropical east including the Persian Gulf region. The catalog is by Father Ethelbert Blatter, and is largely based on the herbaria of the British Museum, which itself contained the records of other collections. The author asserts that Flora Arabica contains "all the plant material ever collected in Arabia." The work is noteworthy for the inclusion of the native names for plants in Arabic and Persian, including regional dialect variants. Blatter's Flora Arabica held pride of place among reference books on Arabian plants until the late 20th century. Ethelbert Blatter (1877-1934) was a Swiss Jesuit priest and pioneering botanist in India. He left his native land to study in Germany and the Netherlands, and later for theological studies in England. In 1903, he moved to Mumbai (Bombay), India, to teach at Saint Xavier College and engage in the botanical research and publishing that occupied him for the remainder of his life. Although his main contributions were in British India, his books on the plants of Aden and Arabia are also important contributions to botanical literature. Flora Arabica comprises volume VIII of the Records of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI or the Survey). The BSI was established in 1890 for the purpose of identifying the plants of India and their economic value. European interest in the flora of India dates to the earliest days of exploration and colonial expansion. Beginning in the 16th century, the Portuguese, Dutch, and British collected and studied native plants. As the lands under control of the British East India Company grew in extent, so too did the study of plant life in the north and northwest of the Indian subcontinent. Economic and imperial expansion extended the surveys beyond the borders of British India to Myanmar (Burma) and the Arabian Peninsula. World Digital Library.

Names

  • Blatter, Ethelbert, 1877-1934

Created / Published

  • Calcutta, Superintendent government printing, India, 1919-36.

Contents

  • no. 1. Ranunculaceae -- Moringaceae. 1919. -- no. 2. Leguminosæ.-Compositæ. 1921. -- no. 3. Campanulaceæ-Verbenaceæ. 1921. -- no. 4. Labiateae-Ceratophyllaceae. 1923. -- no. 5. The botanical exploration of Arabia. 1933. -- no. 6. Gnetaceae-Gramineae. 1936.

Headings

  • -  Plants--Arabian Peninsula

Notes

  • -  Pts. 5-6 have imprint: Delhi, Manager of publications.
  • -  Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site.

Medium

  • 6 v. fold. map. 25 cm.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • QK358 .A4 vol. 8, no. 1-6

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • agr20001033

Online Format

  • pdf
  • online text
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Blatter, Ethelbert. Flora Arabica. Calcutta, Superintendent government printing, India, -36, 1919. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/agr20001033/.

APA citation style:

Blatter, E. (1919) Flora Arabica. Calcutta, Superintendent government printing, India, -36. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/agr20001033/.

MLA citation style:

Blatter, Ethelbert. Flora Arabica. Calcutta, Superintendent government printing, India, -36, 1919. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/agr20001033/>.