xliv PBOCEEDINQS OF THE 



India Company's establishment at Canton, From the time of his 

 arrival in China, he devoted his leisure to investigating the 

 resoiirces of the coiintry, and to the pursuit of various branches 

 of science, making it his principal object to procure specimens of 

 the natural productions of the country, and especially those which 

 promised to be either useful or ornamental, and to transmit them 

 to England to such indiATiduals or societies as appeared most likely 

 to turn them to account. His principal correspondent for some 

 years after his first arrival in China was Sir Joseph Banks. He 

 formed no collections of his own, neither did he keep any record 

 of his proceedings in this respect ; so that were it not for the 

 knowledge possessed by many among us of the extent of his con- 

 tributions to our gardens and museums, there would be some risk 

 of our obligations to his memory remaining unacknowledged and 

 forgotten. During the whole period of his residence in China, 

 from 1812 to 1831, he contributed largely to English horticulture, 

 and to the Horticultural Society in particular, not only by his 

 own direct shipments of plants, but also by collecting plants 

 during the spring and summer, establishing them well in pots 

 previous to the shipping season, and then commending them to the 

 care of the captains of the Company's ships, to whom he was also 

 always ready to recommend the most desirable plants for transpor- 

 tation to England. It was in this way, to instance one case among 

 many, that the Wistaria Sinensis first found its way to England. It 

 was in the latter part of his stay in China that he made the fine 

 collection of fishes, which, together with his drawings, furnished 

 the groundwork of Sir John Richardson's valuable Report " On 

 the Ichthyology of the Seas of China and Japan," published in the 

 ' Reports of the British Association ' for 1845. As the history 

 of these drawings and collections strikingly illustrates his activity 

 in collecting, and disinterestedness in distributing his materials, 

 I cannot do better than quote the observations of Sir John 

 Richardson in regard to them. " For upwards of fifteen years," 

 says that gentleman, " materials for an ample account of the 

 fishes of China have existed in England. John Reeves, Esq., who 

 was long resident at Macao, with an enlightened munificence, 

 caused beautiful coloured drawings, mostly of the natural size, 

 to be made of no fewer than 340 species of fish, which are brought 

 to the markets of Canton. These drawLugs are executed wdth a 

 correctness and finish which will be sought for in vain in the older 

 works on ichthyology, and which are not surpassed in the plates 

 of any large European work "of the present day. The brilliancy 



