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God I've been busy today. Mainly research but the places I'v had to contact were crazy. I actually ended up on the phone with members of the botany department for the Smithosian National Museum of Natural History... after being transfered about 3 to 4 times I finally talked to someone who, though they didn't have the information, would be able to help be to help me with researching. I also ended up also sending an email to the Botanical Survey of India. The ones I haven't been able to get a valid email for is the:
Prince of Wales Museum of Western India
National Museum of Natural History, India
Both of which I will more then likely have to send letters to.

Q:Why are you trying to contact these people?
A: Well I perfer to have information for my art so that I can do pieces correctly.

The following is part of the email I sent. Now if there is anyone out there that might be able to help me out with my search, PLEASE let me know.

To whom it may concern,

My name is Dawn Star Wood and am an artist in Elk Grove, California. Most of my art focuses on religious figured such as the Virgin Mary, Buddha, and Hindu deities. My main focus is on Eastern Religions and so when I create the piece, I pair the image of the religious figure with the flowers/plants used in either the worship or representation of the ideals of the belief being shown. I do my best to find the plants which are native to the country (i.e. India, Cambodia, China, Japan, Thailand) but this in itself is difficult to do due to the fact that in recent history these locations had foreign powers occupying them and had brought over their own plants. So I was wondering if there is some way to find the native flowers of these particular areas or the flowers used in the religious practices of Buddhism or Hinduism?

I think the difficulty of my question presents itself in the fact that it is both botanical and anthropological in nature, which I do apologize about. If there is a person or persons which could assist me on my search, any help would be greatly appreciated.