158 | NOTICE OF BOTANICAL PUBLICATIONS. 
us a Hortus Malabaricus, a lasting monument of the talent — 
and assiduity of its distinguished author; Linnsus and Her- a 
mann, a volume on the Vegetation of Ceylon; Roxburgh, 2 
Wallich, and Royle, have supplied us with the most useful = 
and most splendid works on the Botany of Hindostan, and 
the northern parts of the vast continent of India; Wight 
himself, in conjunction with his able and laborious coadjutor, - 
Dr Arnott, witha’ Prodromus of the Floraof the great peninsula oe 
of India ; but the present publications, although apparently ^ 
in the first instance only destined to illustrate the Prodromus _ 
just mentioned, have received such powerful assistance, 
through the liberality of Dr Wallich, that they bid fair 5 À 
embrace figures with remarks of all the Plants of the Conti- E 
nent of India.—'To conduct such gigantic works, requires à — 
man of no ordinary stamp. Together with an extensive and - 
familiar acquaintance with Indian Botany, there must be 
combined the most persevering industry, a mind capable of 
intense application, not overawed by temporary difficulties, 
an ardent desire for the diffusion of science, a constitution 
. mot likely to be enervated by close application in a very — 
relaxing climate; lastly, there must be at the disposal of | 
the author an independent property to enable him to secure — 
a publisher (if indeed publisher. can be procured at all) * 
or, as is the case hitherto, to justify the author in being. 
his own publisher. All these rare qualities, we believe, are p 
centred in Dr Wight. The plates are executed in litho- —— 
graphy, and but for this happy invention in the arts, poo 
valued friend could scarcely have ventured to grapple with — 
such difficulties as he must have foreseen to lie in the wa 
But this art, although brought to such high perfection m — 
civilized Europe, had as yet met-with but few patrons in our — 
Asiatic possessions, and some of the obstacles which have t° 
be surmounted are already shown in the prospectus, accom- 
panied by a specimen-plate issued by Dr Wight at Madras 
October 15, 1839. ts ted; d - 
—. * I have now,” says Dr Wight in a letter addressed to the 
Editor of the “ Madras Journal of Literature and Science" 
