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Synopsis The writing of this book stems from the authors longstanding interest in endemism, phytogeography and plant conservation. The authors have worked on the endemic plants of India and a series of papers on this subject have been published as noted in the list of references. After Chatterjee's (1940) publication of the endemic flora of India, the studies on endemism did not receive appropriate attention. Since then, due to major taxonomic revisions and new discoveries, concepts of endemic taxa received fresh attention. It is felt timely to collate all new data on endemism and update the existing basic information. Aiming the above, since the endemic taxa of India have restricted distribution in three major geographical regions of India, i.e. the peninsular India, the Himalayan chain of mountains and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, the first volume of the series, is restricted to the endemic flowering plants of peninsular India. The chapters 1-5 relate to the general concept of endemism, rarity and extinction-prone endemic species and the concept of evaluating extinction-prone or threatened taxa. Geographically, the endemism in the W. ghats and the E. ghats have been specially dealt with. For each family the general distribution pattern is discussed giving a brief analysis of the relevant genera. The families are broadly classified as per the arrangement of the families followed by Cronquist (1981). The species ins each family have been arranged alphabetically: the name of the species is followed by its habit and known distribution. Attempt has been made to update the taxonomic nomenclature and distribution of the endemic plants herein. This book is basically a phytogeographical treatise with emphasis on the need for conservation. Shri M. Ahmedullah, Senior Research Scholar of the Botanical Survey of India working under my guidance has done a good job in the final shaping of the book. I hope this book will give impetus to the conservation of rare and endemic taxa.