PREFACE. xi 
it is therefore more consulted for its plates than for its descriptive eha- 
racters. His herbarium is now the property of Baron Benjamin De 
Lessert of Paris, so deservedly styled by Agardh the “ Josephus Banksius 
Gallorum.” Professor De Candolle, by consulting it, has been enabled 
to point out, in his Prodromus, some very curious mistakes into which 
Burmann had fallen. 
With regard to the Oxford Collection of Indian plants, we have only 
to express our sincere regret that we could not consult it thoroughly: to 
do so with any kind of satisfaction, it would have been necessary, either 
that we transported our own herbarium to Oxford, after our manuscript 
had been completed, or that the custodiers permitted it, or the dupli- 
cates only, to be sent to us to be examined while engaged in describing 
our own specimens: the former was quite impracticable; the latter per-. 
haps as much so. It is, however, to be hoped that some means may 
soon be taken to bring it to the light; a very slight inspection satisfied 
us that it contains many, as yet, undescribed plants. 
It is unnecessary to notice here the labours of Thunberg in deed [^ 
the Flora Cochinchensis of Loureiro, as these eastern parts of India pro- 
duce few plants in common with the district to which we are to confine 
ourselves. 
We have already observed that scientific botany in India Men 
with the arrival of Koenig, a Danish physician : previous to this, plants had 
been collected and transmitted to Europe, of which descriptions had been. — - 
inserted by Linnzeus and others in their various publications; but until — 
Koenig made his appearance, no one in India had studied the vegetation — — 
according to the Linnean rules. His example was soon followed by many. — — 
. eminent individuals : among whom may be mentioned Jones, Fleming, - 
Hunter, Anderson, Berry, John, Roxburgh, Heyne, Klein, Buchanan — 
Hamilton, and the venerable Rottler, the only survivor of the illustrious i er 
group. Most of these formed themselves into a society for the purpose of — — 
promoting Botany: plants were industriously collected thoughout all the- - 
. Peninsula, as well as in Ceylon, and were not unfrequently examined. ; 
and named by the society in common; to such was usually added the, 2 
word “ nobis.” By degrees, however, their opportunities of meeti xc 
grew less frequent, and their confidence in themselves greater, so that ees 
Roxburgh, Klein and Rottler commenced attaching names without con- — 
sulting with their friends : an interchange of specimens, however, still con-. 
tinued, so that it was rarely difficult for the one to know what was in- 
tended by the other. The value of such specimens was quiekly felt, 
nor were they slow in transmitting them to Europe. Many of these 
plants were published in different works, sometimes under the name gi- — 
|. ven by the donors: in other instances the name was changed, sometimes — 
zs ca the aden that what was considered by the Indian botanists) m 
T d 
