PItEFACi:. 



ciilar Floras published in the inteimcdlate time, are invariably insert- 

 ed. Hence no work of this kind can be published, at leasi in Jndia, 

 with any well-founded expectation of its being a protitable specula- 

 tion. Should any of the relatives of his late friend have an idea of 

 its being made such in this instance, however, the Editor will cheer- 

 fully give up to them the whole edition, on their defraying the ex- 

 penses attending its printing and publication. 



To those acquainted with Botany, it is well known that many 

 changes have taken place in the nomenclature of plants, since the 

 Jate Dr. Roxburgh added the fnial touch to his manuscripts. In 

 many instances whole orders have undergone a complete revision ; 

 genera have been frequently divided into two or three ; specific 

 names have been changed ; and plants have been removed fioiu one 

 genus to another. The Editor however thought it best to publish 

 his late friend's manuscript in the state in which he left it; and to 

 add in notes such alterations as have been made by botanists -with 

 whose imprt^vements the author was unncquamted, or w lio have writ- 

 ten since his death. The whole work therefore, corresponds exactly 

 with Dr. Roxburgh's manuscript after it had received his last correc- 

 tion, with the exceptions just mentioned, and of such corrections of 

 the language as were necessary, which in no instance have been suf- 

 fered to make any alteration in the sense. 



The Editor feels gratified in bearing testimony to the disinterest- 

 ed and highly liberal manner in wiiich Dr. W^allich has contributed 

 liis assistance throughout the whole of this work; and to his gene- 

 rosity in enriching it with a number of plants described by himself; 

 and easily to be recognised by the initials N. \V. in the first volume. 

 The amount of these, especially among scitamineas and grasses would 

 have been much more considerable had there been time to insert the 

 recent vast accessions of plants, which the Garden has received fiom 

 all parts of India, and which from his earnest solicitude to promote 

 the interests of this pleasing and important science, may be reason* 



