Microsoft Word - S-4. Book.Review.doc


Bangladesh J. Plant Taxon. 19(1): 99, 2012 (June) - BOOK REVIEW 
© 2012 Bangladesh Association of Plant Taxonomists 

 
 Bibliography of Flora and Ethnobiology in West Bengal by Sunit Mitra, Subhajit 
Bandyopadhyay and Sobhan Kr. Mukherjee, East Himalayan Society for Spermatophyte 
Taxonomy, Department of Botany, North Bengal University, Siliguri 734013, West Bengal, India, 
2010, Paperbound, Price: Rs. 250.00,  pp. 165.  
 A good compilation of published scientific literatures on systematic botany, plant taxonomy, 
flora, vegetation, economic botany, medicinal plants, ethnobotany, palynology, aerobiology, 
environmental botany, ecology, biodiversity and related disciplines  from West Bengal, India 
covering a wide period of about 220 years from 1790 to 2010. Authors deserve special 
appreciation for undertaking and completion of such cumbersome and painstaking job. This is a 
good piece of document and ready reference of bibliographic information for teachers, students 
and researchers on plant taxonomy and allied fields from West Bengal and adjacent regions. The 
book contains major three chapters, printed as CHAPTER-I, CHAPTER-II and CHAPTER-III 
dealing with bibliographic entries. CHAPTER-I deals with Floristic study, Vegetation, 
Nomenclature, Taxonomy, Systematic and Morphological information, and contains 667 entries. 
CHAPTER-II contains 427 entries on Economic Botany, Medicinal Plants and Ethnobotany. 
CHAPTER III having 263 entries deals with Palynology, Aerobiology, Environmental Botany, 
Ecology, Biology and others. Each chapter also includes “Index to authors” to that Chapter. An 
Addendum with 33 entries is provided at the end of the book. A 22 page Introduction at the 
beginning provides in brief the geographical and vegetation profiles of West Bengal and historical 
review of the botany of West Bengal. Other than students of plant taxonomy and Ethnobotany, 
people from other fields will derive immense benefits from this Introduction. List of Journals after 
CHAPTER III gives an elaboration of the acronyms of journals used in this piece of work. 
 There remain some loopholes in every work. And this work also could not get rid of it. The 
book lacks a Table of Contents. Also the chapters from Introduction to Addendum could be 
numbered systematically. Many literature cited in Preface and Introduction have not been referred 
anywhere. Either a general Reference section in Introduction chapter or at the end of the book as 
General References would make the citations more meaningful. A little care in editing of 
Introduction chapter could make the readability flow much better. 
 Anyway, I firmly believe that researchers in concerned fields will be immensely benefited 
from this book, and wish a wide circulation of the book. I would also like to extend my warm 
felicitations to the authors for this valuable work through this Review. 
 

 

 Dr. Md. Khairul Alam 
 Former Chief Research Officer 
 Bangladesh Forest Research Institute 
 Chittagong, Bangladesh