PREFACE. 



tent, an.l which will form a monument to his memory more lasting 

 than th'e most pompous inscription engraved on tabletsof brass ; but 

 of which he would have been completely and unjuslly deprived, had 

 the wnrk been suffered to remain unpublished. This, was hkewise, 

 siren-ihc-ned by his desire to promote the interests of a science to 

 ^vhic•h he lias been atiached from the earliest pe:iod of his life, and 

 vvliich must l.ave sutlerEd an almost irreparableloss had the labors of 

 Dr. liux!jui-h been sultered to die wiih him. 



To this measur^ the E litor felt encomaged by anoiher circum- 

 stance which hti esteems ii his duty to mention particularly. On 

 his communicatnig his wish to pubhsh tlie Manuscript of his de- 

 ceased friend, to Dr. Nalhiniiel Wallich, the present Supermtendeiit 

 of the Honorable CumpLiuy's lj;>'ain c Cianlen, whom he f^els honor- 

 ed in numbering amou;^- his most intimate frii nd-, and whose ability 

 and indefatigable zeal in conducting tiiat ln=tituti.in are so well 

 kno\\u_, he not only consented to assist in superintending this woiK 

 of his esteemed predecessor and fiicud, as it passed through the 

 press ; but in the most generous manner promised to insert therein, 

 those numerous plants w hich have since been communicated to hiiu 

 fiom all parts of Asia, and particularly from Nepalcr, a country the 

 productions of which are as yet scarcely known to the Furopean 

 world. This will prove such an addition to the ori;ain;d wcrk of the 

 late Dr. Roxburgh, while it i, fully congenial with its nafme, that it 

 cannot but form a most desirable acquisition to every lover of this 

 pleasing science, both in Asia and in Europe, 



In thus publishing the work of his deceased friend, the Editor 

 feels assured that no one will impute to him motives of a mercenary 

 nature, who considers the expense and labor of printing a work, of 

 this nature, the limited sale it must necessarily have, and the little 

 probability there is of a f^ecoiid edition of it being called for either ia 

 India or Europe : as in every new-systematic work on general botany, 

 or new editions of preceding oues^ all the plants described m parti- 



