A Dictionary Of The Economic Products Of India

This is a dictionary of economic products of India. It was compiled by a Scottish doctor and botanist, George Watt, and assisted by numerous contributors. The dictionary covers scientific and vernacular names, properties, domestic and medical uses, trade statistics, and published sources. The goal of the dictionary was to be found "sufficiently accurate in its scientific details for all practical and commercial purposes." The first four volumes of the dictionary were published between 1889 and 1893, and the ninth volume was published in 1996.

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 4 (1890) contains entries from Gossypium (the cotton genus) to Linociera intermedia (a species of small tree, used for timber).