96 



the South of India. Among these are the Salem and Nulgherry 

 mountains, which rise to the height of nearly eight thousand 

 feet above the sea ; Hynaud ; the Malabar coast ; and, lastly, 

 the whole range of mountains, extending from Cape Comorin 

 to Dendyghal and Pautgaut, dividing the Peninsula into two 

 countries, differing in their aspect, and climate, and produc- 

 tions, nearly as much as India differs from the South of 

 Europe. This range forms a triangle, between sixty and 

 seventy miles broad at the base, and producing, throughout 

 its whole extent, many of the most curious and valuable 

 productions of the vegetable kingdom; and in such abun- 

 dance, that it is impossible to form an adequate idea of it 

 without viewing them. It was my intention to have carried 

 along with me the Hortus Malabaricus, and JDr. Buchanan's 

 Travels in the Mysore^ with the view of collecting and 

 describing as many as possible of the plants figured in 

 the former; and making drawings of all the little -known 

 useful plants mentioned in the latter. These more im- 

 portant objects might easily have been accomplished, while, 

 at the same time, my collections in every branch of natural 

 history might have been augmented to an unlimited extent. 

 In that time, I could have accumulated, I am convinced, not 

 fewer than from five to six thousand species of plants ; thus 

 proving, by the most irresistible argument, the futility of 

 estimating the value (if we may use the term to express num- 

 ber) of the Flora of a mountainous country by the amount 

 of species gathered in the open cultivated parts of it: for such 

 only are the data that Mr. Brown has had access to, when 

 he estimated the Indian Flora at 4,500 species; a number, 

 which, in my opinion, will be found to fall short of the reality, by 

 nearly a half, for the country included between the latitudes 

 of Madras and Cape Comorin alone ; — if the investigatjpn of 

 that part is ever undertaken by an active and enterprising 

 Botanist. I once hoped it would have fallen to my lot to 

 make this investigation : but, alas ! these hopes are all blasted 

 in the bud." 



The failure of this enterprise was caused by the dissolution 

 of the only scientific establishment in the Madras Presidency. 



