and on the Sanscrita Names of that Country. 175 



Soon after my return from Chatigang, I was removed to Ba- 

 ruipur, a station near Calcutta, where I chiefly employed my 

 leisure in describing fishes. Still, however, I continued to col- 

 lect whatever appeared rare for Dr ROXBURGH, especially during 

 several journeys which I made through the great forests that oc- 

 cupy the islands formed by the estuaries of the Ganges. These 

 dreary woods, half inundated by the tides, and skreened by banks 

 of offensive mud, afford but little scope to the botanist. The 

 variety of vegetables which they contain is by no means great ; 

 and the danger in attempting to collect them, by landing where 

 tigers are so numerous and ravenous, is very great. I believe, 

 however, that in the various journies which I made between Cal- 

 cutta and Lukhipur, and from Baruipur, through these woods 

 and islands forming part of the ancient kingdoms of Vanga, Upa- 

 vanga, and Angga, I had an opportunity of describing most of 

 their vegetable productions. Mangroves of various kinds, includ- 

 ing Rhizophora, vEgiceras, Avicennia, Sonneratia, and Heritiera, 

 especially the latter, form the predominant feature of these 

 woods ; but they are ornamented with curious Convolvulaceae 

 and Apocineee, with many parasitical Filices, and some elegant 

 Lycopodiums and Lichens, not remarkable, indeed, for variety, 

 but of great size and beauty. 



The cultivated parts of this Delta of the Ganges, as it has 

 been called, are not more favourable to the botanist than the 

 wastes. The plough or hoe occupies almost every spot, one rice- 

 field succeeds another, and the houses are buried among groves 

 of Mangifera, Artocarpus, and Bambusa, intermixed with Palmae, 

 and are only kept above water, by being raised on the banks 

 thrown up by digging ponds. In this territory the wastes are 

 generally covered with reedy grasses, almost as lofty as those of 

 Tripura. The whole aspect, indeed, of the country, and of its 

 vegetation, is strange and foreign to an European, unless to a 



