24 THE JOURNAL OF I30TANY 



and furnish me with a list of the plants brought lionie for His 

 Majesty, (listinguishing the number of each species, and the kind of 

 pots or tubs in which they are planted, in order that j^i'oper boats 

 may be provided to carry, them to Kew, which will be sent to meet 

 you with as much dispatch as possible, especially if the season should 

 unfortunately be cold. On the arrival of these boats, immediate 

 measures must be taken, with such assistance as the commanding 

 officer can spare, to embark all the plants in their respective pots and 

 tubs, and stow them away to the best advantage ; which done, you 

 are to embark with them, both of you, if both of j^ou return, and 

 nev^er cput them till you have delivered them to his Majesties 

 Botanic Gardener at Kew, who will be ready at Kew bridge to 

 receive them ; and you are particularly to take notice that no plant, 

 cutting, layer, sucker, or part of plant, be, on any condition what- 

 ever, taken away by any other person, but that the whole be safel}' 

 and carefully delivered to his Majesties use." 



It has seemed worth while to print these somewhat copious 

 extracts as evidence of the care and thoroughness of Banks's instruc- 

 tions t® collectors, and of his desire for the fullest possible use, 

 from a scientific as well as from an economic standpoint, of the 

 opportunities presented by the voyage. The instructions were ad- 

 dressed in the first instance to Wiles, who had been gardener to 

 11. A. Salisbury with whom he continued to correspond ; they Avere 

 *' to be carried into execution by his assistant Mr. Christopher Smith, 

 in case [Wiles] himself should be prevented by any unexpected event 

 from executing that service." Wiles on the way back stayed in 

 Jamaica and " was engaged in the capacity of Gardener to remain in 

 B th " (p. 2L5) — or perhaps at the Liguanea garden : see Fawcett in 

 Bot. Gaz. xxiv. 3-i5-8G9 for a full account of " The Public Gardens 

 and Plantations of Jamaica." Here Wiles remained until 1806, 

 after which time his history cannot be traced : he sent dried plants 

 to Lambert, which are now in the National Herbarium. 



It thus fell to the lot of Christopher Smith, who before the 

 voyage appears to have been employed in Kew Gardens, to carry out 

 Banks's instructions ; his claims to be considered a botanist were 

 evidently more considerable than those of Wiles. In 1793 he 

 brought back with him to Kew a large collection of West Indian 

 plants, many of which are recorded in the second edition of the 

 Jlortus Keivensis (1810-13) as of his introduction. On account of 

 this collection and of his connection with the introduction of the 

 Bread-fruit, he was in the same year elected a Fellow of the Linnean 

 Society. In 1791 Smith became Botanist to the East India Com- 

 pany at Calcutta, whence he also sent plants to Kew. 



At the beginning of 1796, by the instructions of the Company, 

 Smith went through the Molucca Islands, " for the purpose of col- 

 lecting the spice plants of various kinds, hitherto natives of those 

 parts only," with a view of establishing their cultivation in Prince of 

 Wales's Island (Penang). "The most sanguine expectations could 

 scarcely have looked for such a successful experiment," the results of 

 which, with a high tribute to Smith's " known character as a botanist 



