ABSTRACT
In late 1952, when Janaki was dejected having failed to land grants or positions in America to go on the Camellia trail, she would receive Nehru’s letter offering her the post of Director of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Scientific Research. It was only after much thought that she would agree to it, having been disappointed previously as a director of agriculture. The contract was to be for a year, but with the possibility of an extension. Her task was to prepare a road map on how the defunct Botanical Survey of India could be revived and reorganised; she was determined to use the opportunity to modernise botany in the country. After two years of hard work, her Memorandum would be ready; she could not emphasise enough the importance of scientific taxonomy to the other plant sciences such as morphology, physiology, ecology, genetics or cytology. However, like a bolt from the blue, she would receive news that H. Santapau, the Jesuit taxonomist of the Kew tradition, had been appointed to the post of Chief Botanist of the BSI, a definitive indication that her plans for putting the BSI on a modern footing had come crashing down. In addition, the Government would decide to enhance the powers of the Chief Botanist, making him the supreme head of the institution, while her own position as Director of the CBL would be reduced. An extremely dejected Janaki would escape to the forests of Malabar to find solace collecting primitive cultivars.
