had trade links with people in mountains where conifers could grow. He recorded foreign pollen in the ovules of living Ginkgo biloba and noted in the New Phytologist (1915), the problem with assuming that fossil pollen in ovules belonged to a single species. Sahni was among the first to suggest a separate order, the Taxales, within the conifers to contain the genera Taxus, Torreya and Cephalotaxus. Another major contribution was in the studies on the morphology of the Zygopteridaceae. Sahni identified Torreyites, a close relative of Torreya, which extended the range of the Taxales into Gondwanaland. He also described Glossopteris in detail and identified differences between the flora of India and Australia with that of China and Sumatra. He also studied the fossil plants of the Deccan Intertrappean beds. He suggested that the lower Narmada area around Nagpur and Chhindwara was coastal on the basis of fossils that showed a similarity to estuarine palms of the genus Nipa. Based on the ecology of plants and the altitude of the fossil finds, he also attempted to estimate rates of uplift of the Himalayas. Birbal Sahni's work influenced his younger brother M.R. Sahni and his nephew Ashok Sahni to take up a career in palaeontology. Other interests Sahni was interested in music and could play the sitar and the violin. He was also interested in clay-modelling and in playing chess and tennis. At Oxford he used to play tennis for the Indian majlis. Other interests included geology, photography, archaeology and numismatics. In 1936 he examined some coins and moulds dating to 100 BC from a dig in Khokra Kot and wrote on the possible methods involved in the casting of the coins. The collection is now at the National Museum at New Delhi. He was much liked by his nieces and nephews who called him tamashewala uncle for entertaining them with a monkey-hand-puppet named Gippy. Selected publications A full list of publications can be found in Appendix 3 of Gupta (1978). The following are a selection of Sahni's publications. 1915. Foreign pollen in the ovules of Ginkgo and its significance in the study of fossil plants. New Phytol. 14 (4 and 5), 149–151. 1915. The anatomy of Nephrolepis volzibilis J. Sim, with remarks on the biology and morphology of the genus. New Phytol. 14 (8 and 9), 251–274. 1916. The vascular anatomy of the tubers of Nephrolepis. New Phytol. 15 (3 and