160 NOTICE OF BOTANICAL PUBLICATIONS. 
perties, of which I have received, from really competent - 
observers, accounts so satisfactory, that they could not fail to 
produce a strong feeling of regret, that the narrators were. E 
unqualified to give me more perfect information regarding — 
them. a : 
** Botany has hitherto advanced with tardy steps among us, 
the catalogue of Indian botanists having never, at any one 
time comprised more than a few names: her most palmy days 5 
having undoubtedly embraced the concluding years of the. iG 
last, and first quarter of the present century; during which à 
Koenig, Roxburgh, Rottler, Klein, Heyne, and Buchanan 
Hamilton flourished. Es 
* When we contemplate the impediments which these — 
truly great men had to surmount in arriving at the eminence 1 
they justly attained in their favourite pursuit ; partly origis 
nating in the imperfection of books treating of Indian plants 
and partly from the engrossing duties they had to perform — 
the intervals of which, only, they could devote to botany, We — 
cannot too much admire their perseverance and devotion to — 
Science; while they afford a striking example of how much | 
may be done by a skilful division of our time, and a careful 
appropriation of our leisure to scientific pursuits. rA 
. .* While we thus admire their industry in obtaining know- , 
ledge, we equally regret that, with the exception of the illus- 
trious Roxburgh, leisure sufficient was not granted to any* 
one of them to leave a comprehensive written record of the 
extent of his acquirements, for the benefit of succeeding 
labourers in the same field: hence, we are constrained t0 - 
acquire much of our knowledge of Indian plants, in the same — 
round-about way that they did, that is, from general systems — 
of Botany (greatly enriched by them, certainly), in place of | 
local Floras. j 
© *'These systems, embracing as they do the vegetation of 
the whole globe, are necessarily very concise, and the species 
so briefly described, as not seldom to render it next to 1M7 
possible to identify the plant from its specific character. One 
_ object of the present work is to remedy, in some degrees this 
