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185 



BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



Br. Wallich. 



The pages of our Journal were already printed, last month, when we 

 received the melancholy tidings of the death of our inestimable, long- 

 tried, and learned friend, Dr. Wallich, M.D., F.E.S., Vice-President of 

 the Linnean Society, Knight of the Danish Order of Danebrog : a name 

 that will be loved and honoured so long as botanical science shall con- 

 tmue to be cultivated. ^His persevering and arduous services and literary 

 labours, in unhealthy tropical climates, gradually undermined his constitu- 

 tion and induced organic disease, which, after two or three months' con- 

 finement, terminated fatally, at his house in Upper Gower-street, on the 

 28th of April, at the age of 68. Few men, if any, of the 19th century, 

 have done so much to further the cause of botany throughout the world 

 as Dr. Wallich. Placed, by a series of unforeseen circumstances, at an 

 early age, at the head of the East India Company's Botanic Garden, at 

 Calcutta, he had such means at his disposal for studying and dispensing 

 the vegetable riches of India and of other countries, as have never been 

 at the command of any single individual before or since. But for his 

 munificent contributions of Palms and other glories of tropical vegeta- 

 tion, the great conservatory of the Duke of Northumberland, at Syon, 

 would never have been required ; but for them, the extraordinary talents 

 of Sir Joseph Paxton would never have been displayed on the yet un- 

 rivalled Plant-house at Chatsworth (the model of the " Crystal Pa- 

 laces"), or those of Mr. Decimus Burton on the Palm-house of the 

 Hoyal Gardens at Kew. In all these structures we have but to look 

 around fpr monuments of his inteUigence, energy, and liberality. 



The Journals of the day, especially the ' Gardeners' Chronicle' and 

 the ' Literary Gazette,' have briefly recorded his worth, and the services 

 he rendered to science. Dr. Wallich's extensive correspondence in 

 connection with the Calcutta Garden has been bequeathed by him to 

 the library of the Eoyal Gardens of Kcw; and this, it is hoped, will 

 furnish data and information for a little Memoir, which it will be a duty 

 to prepare for an early number of our Miscellany. 



VOL. VI. 



2 B 



