FLORA OF NORTH C01MBAT0RE. 391 



catalogue of the plants of Coimbatore ; and I feel confidentthat it 

 will be welcome to many botanists, and especially to those that intend 

 to compile a regional Flora. Northern Coimbatore covers a com- 

 paratively small area, and besides, the notes on elevation and flower- 

 ing time are, perhaps, the first contribution from that country. 



The history of the botanical exploration of Coimbatore can be told 

 in a few words. As far as we know it has never been examined 

 systematically, and if Coimbatore is mentioned sometimes in a few 

 works on Indian plants as a place in which a species has been found, 

 it was done quite incidentally. The first that paid some attention to 

 the vegetation of that country is Dr. F. Buchanan 1 , a medical officer 

 of the Bengal Army. In 1800 and 1801 he made, under the orders of 

 the Marquis of Wellesley, a journey from Madras through the coun- 

 tries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar, " with the express purpose," 

 as he says himself, " of investigating the state of agriculture, arts, 

 and commerce, the religion, manners, and customs, the history, natural 

 and civil, and antiquities." His tour brought him also to Coim- 

 batore, but only to the southern and central parts. His diary contains 

 much information on the agricultural products of the country and some 

 notes on its forests 2 . Similarly the " more unknown" plants received 

 his attention. "I transmitted," he says, " a considerable number of 

 seeds to Dr. Roxburgh 3 , and made a collection of descriptions and 

 drawings of the more unkuown plants. These last it was my inten- 

 tion to have published with this work ; but the booksellers declining 

 to incur the necessary expense, I have given them to my friend Dr. 

 James Edward Smith 4 , who, I hope, will publish somo part in his 

 Exotic Botany 5 . I need hardly mention that the Herbaria of N. 

 Wallich, a medical officer of the Bengal Army, and of R. Wight of 

 the Madras Medical Service, contain specimens collected in Coim- 

 batore. The latter resided for a long time at Coimbatore as Superin- 



1 Cf. Francis Buchanan : A journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, 

 Canara, and Malabar. London, 1807. 



■ F. Buchanan, 1. c. Vol. II, chapters IX, X. 



3 William Roxburgh, who had come out to India in the medical service of the Ea9t 

 India Company, had been removed from Samulcottah to Calcutta in the autumn of 1793 

 where he was in charge of the botanic garden till 1814. 



* Sir James Edward Smith is known as the purchaser of the collections and library of 

 Linnseus and the founder of the Linnean Society in 1788. I am not able to ascertain 

 whether Roxburgh's collection of descriptions and drawings has ever been published by 

 Smith. 



5 F. Buchanan, 1. c. Vol. I, Introduction, p. XIII. 



