vi! 
includes many Indian plants. To these may be added Blume's Rumphia (a work I have not been so 
fortunate as to have seen), and Horsfield's Java Plants. - As valuable books of reference, though 
now rather out of date, we have Rheede's Hortus Malabaricus, Rumphius' Herbar. Amboynense, 
and the Floras of the two Burmanns. But so far is the field from being exhausted that, I may say 
for myself, had circumstances permitted, my materials are still so ample, that I could easily have 
continued this work through 1500 or 2000 additional plates, the subjects for the most part apper- 
taining to the Peninsular flora. It is to be hoped, therefore, that some new aspirant to botanical 
fame and honors will be induced to resume the work thus prematurely dropped, now that such 
an efficient press exists for carrying it on. 
With these brief prefatory notes I consign these volumes to the indulgent consideration of the 
publie, cherishing the hope that they may not often disappoint the hopes of those who have occasion 
to consult them, and that they may prove the means of encouraging some of the many admirers of the 
beauties and perfections of all Nature's works, who had previously been discouraged by the difficul- 
ties which beset their path, so long as they had written characters only to guide them to a know- 
ledge of the principles and objects of their study and admiration, to devote a portion of their leisure 
to the cultivation of Indian Botany. 
COIMBATORE, 20th January, 1853. ROBERT WIGHT. 
