A Dictionary Of The Economic Products Of India

The Dictionary of the Economic Products of India is a monumental work that was compiled by a Scottish doctor and botanist, George Watt. The work is organized into nine parts and contains entries on India's commercial plants and produce, including scientific and vernacular names, properties, domestic and medical uses, trade statistics, and published sources. The dictionary is intended to be found "sufficiently accurate in its scientific details for all practical and commercial purposes."

A Scottish doctor and botanist, George Watt (1851-1930) had studied the flora of India for more than a decade before he took on the task of compiling this monumental work. Assisted by numerous contributors, he set about organising vast amounts of information on India's commercial plants and produce, including scientific and vernacular names, properties, domestic and medical uses, trade statistics, and published sources. Watt hoped that the dictionary, 'though not a strictly scientific publication', would be found 'sufficiently accurate in its scientific details for all practical and commercial purposes'. First published in six volumes between 1889 and 1893, with an index volume completed in 1896, the whole work is now reissued in nine separate parts. Volume 6, Part 4 (1893) contains entries from Tectona grandis (the common teak tree) to Zygophillum simplex (a flowering plant found in Sindh and the Punjab). The index to the entire work is included as an appendix.