36 
DEATH OF WM. GRIFFITH, ESQ. 
Private letters by the last overland mail have brought 
the sad intelligence of the decease of this gentleman at 
Penang, on the 7th of February last, after a few days’ 
illness. The public papers make no mention of the event, 
but we have ascertained from his family that the news is 
too true. 
In Mr. Griffith Botany has sustained a most serious loss. 
To a thorough acquaintance with the subject, and much 
skill as a draftsman, he added a singular power of correct 
observation, and a perseverance in following out an inquiry 
into its most subtle ramifications which has never been 
surpassed. This is universally known to Botanists who 
have studied his writings, and they will long regret so great 
a loss to science. Than his observations on Santalum, and 
on pollen, and his recent curious investigation of the pro- 
gressive development of Salvinia and Azolla, we have few 
treatises of more real importance to Vegetable physiology. 
Besides these, his unpublished papers will, we doubt not, 
be found a perfect mine of elaborate observation. 
It was, we think, about the year 1829 that Mr. Griffith 
proceeded to India. Soon after his arrival he was placed 
on the staff of a cavalry regiment quartered in Burma, and 
there had ample leisure for prosecuting his favourite studies. 
He was afterwards, under the enlightened administration of 
the Earl of Auckland, appointed one of the commissioners 
to examine the Tea districts of Assam ; and at a later period 
was sent by the same distinguished nobleman with that 
too celebrated expedition to Cabul, so ably conceived, so 
deplorably marred by the incompetency of agents, and so 
gloriously vindicated by the armies of Kandahar and Jella- 
labad. 
His last public employment was as the temporary Super- 
intendent of the Botanic Garden, Calcutta, on the occasion 
of the absence of Dr. Wallich on sick leave. During the 
short time that he held this appointment he entirely re- 
modelled the establishment, and laid the foundation of most 
useful changes of a still more extensive nature. At the 
conclusion of this engagement he received very handsome 
