Forest botany

Botany is a basic biological science that deals with the study of plants while forest botany is that branch of botany which covers the study of plants found in forests. India has rich and diverse forests whose study started with botanical explorations that were undertaken way back from the seventeenth century onwards. Knowledge of forest botany is as much relevant today as it was many centuries ago when forests began to be visited by scientists to unravel various facts which were at that time unknown to science. Even today, botanical explorations in forests help in discovering species of plants which are new to science. Forest botany is of immense help to foresters, students and various other groups. This book on forest botany includes chapters on introductory botany, medicines and drugs, foods, systematic botany, forest tree seeds, forest genetics and tree improvement, forest ecology, fungi, important Indian trees, timbers, bamboos and forest types of India. It is meant for students of forest botany at the under-graduate and post graduate levels, officer trainees of the Indian Forest Service and State Forest Service, forest officers, scientists and the layman.