BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 397 
foo rapid for making collections, which I did not greatly 
regret, for the ground has been often gone over by Dr. 
Wight. ; 
Two days before reaching Coimbatore, I had a smart fit of 
ague, which returned on the day after my arrival with in- 
creased force, and prostrated me so much that I was con- 
fined to bed for nearly a week. I received a most hearty 
welcome from Dr. Wight, who was quite delighted to meet 
with a brother Botanist. He was on the Neelgherries when 
I informed him from Madras that I was near at hand, and 
he only reached Coimbatore a few hours before me. For 
the last three years he has been employed in superintending 
a large Cotton Farm, established here by order of the 
Court of Directors of the East India Company; and con- 
ducted on the North American plan of cultivation; Ameri- 
can planters being engaged for that purpose. It has not, 
however, answered so well as was anticipated, for the 
soil is too light to admit of more than two crops being 
— taken off the same plantation in succession, and even then 
the second crop is decidedly inferior to the first. This is 
with regard to American Cotton. In America the case is 
very different, for there the same ground is kept under 
Cotton cultivation for years in succession; and it is the 
same in the northern districts of Brazil, such as Pernam- 
buco and Maranham. Coimbatore is about 25 miles distant 
from the foot of the Neelgherry range, and the country 
round it is flat. There is not much depth of soil, for at 
one or two feet below the surface there exists in some places 
. a very thick stratum of botryoidal limestone, and in others 
disintegrating gneiss and granite. 
. The Ceylon collections were more extensive than I 
anticipated, but by far the greater part are in a very bad 
State of preservation. Moon seems to have been a most 
indefatigable collector, for among his plants we found 
most of the species detected by subsequent Superin- 
tendents of the Garden, and other collectors. During 
the month of January, Dr. Wight and I worked very 
