176 DR FRANCIS HAMILTON on the Plants of India, 



Hollander. For four months in the year every field swarms with 

 fish, and at all times the only conveyance is by boats. 



During my stay in this part of the country I made few bota- 

 nical observations, except by communications with Dr ROX- 

 BURGH. I, however, transmitted a few descriptions and drawings 

 to Sir J. E. SMITH, with whom they still remain. 



During the year 1800, I was employed by the Marquis WEL- 

 LESLEY to examine the state of the country which he had lately 

 taken from TIPPOO SULTAN, and of the province which Europeans 

 call Malabar. I landed at Madras (Chinapatana of the natives), 

 and travelled through the territory belonging then to the Na- 

 bob of Arcot, which Europeans call the Carnatic, but it is the 

 Draveda of the Hindus, bounded on the south, at the mouth of 

 the Kaveri, by Chola, which Europeans call Tanjore, and to the 

 north by Andhra, the sea-coast of which by Europeans is usually 

 called the Circars, as having once been divided into five districts 

 (Circar), which were early ceded to Europeans by the Muham- 

 medan princes of Andhra or Tailingana. The coasts of Chola, 

 Draveda, and Andhra are usually included by Europeans under 

 the denomination of Coromandel, a name totally unknown to the 

 natives, who consider it as English, and from which we have se- 

 veral plants named Coromandeliana, as from the English word 

 Madras, with the addition of Patana (City) we have Maderaspa- 

 tana, as if plants grew in the streets. Both names should be 

 avoided as inconveniently long, as well as devoid of meaning in 

 any language. 



On leaving Draveda, and ascending to the elevated region, 

 lately under the dominion of TIPPOO SULTAN, I entered the an- 

 cient Hindoo territory, called by them Karnata (Latine, Carna- 

 ta), but usually known to Europeans by the name of Mysore, 

 from the town where its princes for some generations resided. 

 Having examined this and the skirts of the interior of Andhra, 

 I descended again to the low country by the south, and exa- 



