E peu. PREFACE. 
unfortunately, so Tittle has v our socie of the plinits of Malatiar ad- 
e vanced since Rheede’s time, that several of his figures are at present re- 
ferred only approximately, and consequently with doubt. In the pre- 
sent volume, however, from our having obtained a considerable num- _ 
ber of species from the mountains about Courtallum, the vegetation of 
which resembles in several points that of Malabar, we have been enabled 
to decide upon many of them hitherto involved in obscurity. We have 
to regret, however, that we have not been able to procure a copy of 
Dennstedt’s Schluessel zum Hortus Indicus Malabaricus, published at 
Weimar in 1818: it professes to give the botanical names for nearly all 
Rheede’s plants, but from the slight examination we had once an oppor- 
tunity of giving it, it appears to be a mere compilation, and to abound 
in errors. 
Leonard Plukenet’s works were published in London between 1696 
and 1705, in 4 volumes quarto, containing 454 plates, with 2740 figures 
of plants, many of them Indian. These figures are small, and often 
much reduced from the natural size, especially when the plants were 
. large, but are generally very characteristic: we have almost invariably 
referred to them, because they are much less costly and more easily pro- 
cured than those of Rheede. — — 
The materials of the Herbarium Amboinense of George Everhard 
... Rumphius, a native of Hanover, a physician and a merchant, and after- 
.. wards consul of Amboina, were principally collected by himself, and draw- 
.. ings and Latin descriptions made at the time. Having afterwards be- 
. eome blind, he obtained the assistance of some young men in completing 
the work, and translating the descriptions into Dutch : it was finished in 
. 1690. Rumphius died in Amboina in 1706, from which time the ma- _ 
nuscript remained upwards of thirty years in the possession of the Dutch _ 
East India Company, but was at length rescued from oblivion by Pro- 
fessor John Burmann of Amsterdam, who not only edited it between the 
years 1741 and 1751, but has illustrated it with several remarks and i i 
synonyms, besides giving a translation into Latin, for Rumphius original |. 
. one appears to have been lost. This work consists of 6 volumes, with 
a supplemental one or seventh not published till 17 57,and contains 696 _ 
-~ plates, representing more than twice that number of plants. The plates 
.. are much less valuable than those of Rheede, but the descriptions on the - 
EY contrary are much superior. Most of the plants are to this day very ied 
| em _ We may nets state, that a most elaborate commentary on 1 the ‘Her, : 
pes bárium Amboinense was commenced by the late Dr Francis Buchanan _ 
Ber . Hamilton, i in the Transactions of the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh ; $ d 
Eos what is printed only extends to the middle of the 2d volume, but we | 
= — that the remainder of the manuseript was presented. to the - 
