folio, and contains 295 coloured lithographic plates, with a map of In- 
xviii dd PREFACE. 
ven to Dr Wallich to transfer the colleetion to the party who may be autho- 
rised by the Council to receive the same. We have the honour to be, my 
Lord, your Lordship's most obedient humble servant, ; 
(Signed) * Joun G. RavENSHAW. | 
ee C, Marsoripanks.” 
It is scarcely necessary to add, that * the Council, in name of the 
Society, accepted with feelings of profound gratitude the collection thus 
proffered to them, and begged to assure the Court that it shall be held 
as a trust for the general benefit of science." Cabinets were immediate- 
ly ordered for the purpose of containing it, and already great progress 
has been made towards its arrangement. 
Dr Wallich, before leaving India, had commenced a Tentamen Flore . 
Nepalensis Illustrate, intended to present a detailed description and a 
lithographic figure of the principal plants of that country. Two num- 
bers only have appeared, each of twenty-five plates, which, in addition 
to their botanieal interest, deserve to be noticed as being the first at- 
tempt at lithographic botanical plates in India, and executed by native 
artists. But while in England, he planned and executed, amidst his 
other engagements above alluded to, a work of a much more splendi 
nature. This, the Plante Asiatic Rariores, consists of three volumes 
dia, on which are delineated the different routes of the principal bota 
nists: in the accompanying letter-press will be found some admirable 
monographs, as those by Professor Nees Von Esenbeck on Indian Lau 
rinee and Acanthaceze, that by Mr Bentham on the Labiatæ, Professo 
Meisner on the genus Polygonum, and Von Martius on Restiaceæ. 
* This is,” to use the language of Professor Hooker, than whom no one 
is more capable of judging, “ his magnum opus, and that on which Dr 
Wallich’s fame as a botanist may safely rest ; a work which, whether fot 
the beauty or rarity and, interest of the subjects, the execution of th 
plates, or the accuracy of the descriptions, is surpassed by no publica 
tion of this or any other period. It is not possible to conceive how D: 
Wallich can have accomplished so laborious a task, amidst all his other 
important employments, but by the consideration that many of these 
materials were completed while the author was yet resident in India.” - 
We now proceed to mention the materials from which our own work 
has been principally drawn up. By glancing the eye over the supple 
mental collections enumerated by Dr Wallich, and noticed above, it may 
` be observed that the sixth was made by Dr Wight, one of the authors 
of the present volume. The specimens were obtained from various parts 
of the Peninsula, as Samulcottah and the Rajahmundry Cirears, Madras, 
Neelgherries, Dindygul mountains, and Courtallum. A correspon 
