140 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [April 



the natural history collections amassed by him during years of 

 exploration of the Himalayas and plains of India. 



Soon after his arrival in England in the autumn of 1843, fresh 

 duties devolved on him in connection with the Sewalik fossils. 

 Capt. Cautley had presented his vast collection to the British 

 Museum. Its extent and value may be estimated from the fact 

 that it filled 214 large chests, and that the charges on its trans- 

 mission alone to England amounted to £602 stg. Dr. Falconer's 

 selected collection was divided between the India House and the 

 British Museum : the great mass was presented to the former, but 

 a large number of unique or choice specimens, required to fill 

 blanks or improve series, was presented to the latter. Most of the 

 specimens were still imbedded in matrix. The authorities at the 

 India House fitted up a museum room specially for the reception 

 of their acquisitions; and Sir Robert Peel's government gave 

 a liberal grant to prepare the materials in the national museum for 

 exhibition in the Palaeontological gallery. Dr. Falconer was 

 intrusted with the superintendence of the work, and rooms were 

 temporarily assigned to him by the Trustees in the British 

 Museum. 



His botanical collections were less fortunate. Having partially 

 suffered from damp on the voyage to England, they were left 

 deposited in the India House during his second absence in India, 

 and the specimens underwent a ruinous process of decay. In 1857 

 Dr. J. D. Hooker applied to the Court of Directors for the 

 herbarium collections in the India House, and saved a few of the 

 Cashmeer and Himalayan dried plants. 



In 1848, on the retirement of the late Dr. Wallich, Dr. Fal- 

 coner was appointed his successor as Superintendent of the 

 Calcutta Botanic Garden, and Professor of Botany in the Medical 

 College. In 1850 he was deputed to the Tenasserim Provinces to 

 examine the teak forests, which were threatened with exhaustion 

 from reckless felling and neglected conservation. His Report,, 

 suggesting remedial measures, was published in 1850, in the 

 " Selections from the Records of the Bengal Government," In 

 1852 he communicated a paper "On the Quinine-yielding Cincho- 

 nas and their Introduction into India." In 1854, assisted by his 

 friend, the late Mr. Henry Walker, he undertook a " Descriptive 

 Catalogue of the Fossil Collections in the Museum of the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal," which was published as a distinct work in 

 1859. In the spring of 1855 he retired from the Indian Service ; 



