392 Life of Sir Stamford Raffles. 



of his researches in Java. He arrived on the island with the inten- 

 tion of practising as a physician, about the year 1802 ; but after 

 having been proposed to the High Regency, or Dutch Colonial 

 Government, as a proper person to institute a scientific examination 

 of the country, he was authorised to prosecute his botanical re- 

 searches under the sanction of the government. He made several 

 excursions into different parts of the island, and at length estab- 

 lished himself at Surakarta, the capital of one of the native pro- 

 vinces, with the view of forming a Flora Javana; forwarding re- 

 ports of his progress, from time to time, to the Batavian Society, 

 together with collections of plants, and accounts of his discoveries 

 in various departments of Natural History. 



He collected about two thousand species of plants, which are 

 now deposited in the Museum of the East-India Company ; and 

 the more remarkable new or imperfectly known of which will 

 shortly be described by Mr. R. Brown, a naturalist whose peculiar 

 qualifications for investigating their characters and affinities, and 

 illustrating from them those departments of Botany to which they 

 may more immediately relate, ensure the happiest results to the 

 science, derivable from such a collection. In a paper hereafter to 

 be noticed. Dr. Horsfield has himself described, for the first time, 

 sixty Javan plants possessing medicinal properties, several of which 

 •would probably form valuable articles in general practice. 



The Botany and the Materia Medica of Java formed, for several 

 years, the principal objects of Dr. Horsfield's pursuit; "but as 

 numerous insects were constantly occurring to him during his 

 botanical excursions, he was naturally and almost imperceptibly- 

 led to the collection of these beautiful and interesting animals. Like 

 most other entomologists, he commenced his career in the science 

 by paying attention to Lepidopterous insects, to the collection of 

 which he was the more induced by their great abundance in cer- 

 tain districts, during the latter part of the rainy season."* Some 

 of the most important and curious mammiferous animals and birds, 

 either discovered or first described with precision by Dr. Horsfield, 

 were also collected by him during the early part of his residence 

 on the island. This was the case with two interesting species 



* Annulosa Jivanica, Preface, p. v. 



