REINWARDTIA 

Vol 13, No 5, pp: 455 

  455 

 

glimpse by Misra in 2007 and many other orchid 

books that contribute to the information of the Indi-

an Orchids, specifically to Himalayan orchids.  The 

book of ‘A Century of West Himalayan Orchids’ is 

regarded as the supplement to the books of the other 

Himalayan Orchids that have been published.  In 

regard to its physical form, this book is very handy 

to carry and easy to read due to its small size and 

the reasonable font size.  Also, this book is complet-

ed with a large number of attractive photos of the 

plants, flowers and the dissection of the floral parts.  

Broader readers who have interests to orchids can 

utilize the book. 

    This book consists of 243 species and each spe-

cies was described in a complete detail and         

followed by the other taxonomic information such 

as their proper nomenclature, flowering and fruiting 

time, habitats, distribution, status, and potential val-

ues.  Among the species described in this book, the 

genus Dendrobium is the most dominant, followed 

by the genus Habenaria Willd, Liparis Rich., Eria 

Lindl. and Oberonia Lindl.  There are 16, 11, 10, 

10, and 9 species of those genera above respective-

ly.  The information in this book is useful for scien-

tists around the world including students, orchid 

lovers and conservation managements to implement 

the information needed for conservation and re-

search in this area. 

   Despite the useful information on the taxonomic 

accounts of this book, there are few typo errors  

such as 30,000 became 300,000 in the preface, un-

clear species names in the Figures (e.g. p. 31), and 

inconsistency in giving author name(s) after the sci-

entific names and in giving photo legends that can 

be improved easily by massive proof reading.  Also 

some photos do not have complete information 

(Figs. 18, 19). Readers need to look back to the text 

in order to understand the information in the photos.  

Also, the Figures 18 and 19 showed the type of in-

florescences that are cyme, spike, umber or fascicle 

without referring to particular photos.  In addition, 

the details of the photos of floral morphology for 

each species can be better if it is supplemented with 

line drawings because many photos cannot capture 

hidden floral details. Additionally, the book will be 

more functional for the readers who utilize this 

book in the field if the artificial identification key of 

West Himalayan Orchids is presented. 

 

 

– Lina S. Juswara,  Herbarium Bogoriense, Botany 

Division, Research Center for Biology-LIPI,       

Cibinong Science Center, Jl. Raya Jakarta-Bogor 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Review 
 

H. J. Chowdhery & D. K. Agrawala. 2013. A centu-

ry of West Himalayan Orchids. Bishen Singh Ma-

hendra Pal Singh. New Connaught Place, Dehra 

Dun, India. 318 pp. Price USD 74.95 

 

    New book on ‘A Century of West Himalayan 

Orchids’ has been published.  The title of the book 

is suitable with the content of the book itself.  The 

book was initiated to document orchids of East 

Himalaya by providing reliable and accurate ac-

counts of the genera and species found in West 

Himalayan with the detail history of Orchidology 

around the World including in India, general mor-

phology of orchids including the variations on both 

vegetative and generative structures. The Himala-

yan regions geographically including its physiog-

raphy of West Himalayan and the history of the 

plant exploration in West Himalaya was also dis-

cussed thoroughly.  The initial book of Orchids of 

Himalaya Part I was written by George King and 

Robert Pantling in 1898 which contained many 

drawings and then followed by The Orchids of 

North Western Himalaya Vol IX Part II Duthie 

1906, Orchids of Kaumaun Himalayas by Pangtey, 

Samant and Rawat in 1991, Orchids of India: a