342 Journal of Tnwel and Natural History 



of this plant is sufficiently extended, and the natural sites suffi- 

 ciently varied to warrant its being beneficially cultivated. * Dr 

 Nathaniel Wallich also, the eminent botanist, seems to have 

 arrived at the same conclusion independently of Dr Royle, and in 

 1832 brought in the cultivation of tea in the Himmalayahs before 

 a committee of the House of Commons, on the affairs of India. 

 The recommendation of these two eminent botanists resulted in 

 the appointment of the Tea Committee by the Bengal government, 

 to whom Dr Falconer gave his report, and by whose express 

 direction he conducted the first experiments ; and thus Avhile the 

 merit of the original suggestion was owing to Drs Royle and 

 Wallich, that of practically carrying out the idea was due to Dr 

 Falconer. Subsequently, in the years 1849-50, Mr Fortune 

 brought over large numbers of tea plants in Wardian cases from 

 China, which reached their destination in the Himmalayahs in good 

 condition. 



This seems to us the share that each had in laying the founda- 

 tion of a vast and important branch of industry in Northern India. 



Dr Falconer also gave his attention to botanical notices in 

 Greek and Latin works. In 1840 he wrote an elaborate paper t 

 on the Costus of Dioscorides, in which he proved that it was the 

 root of a new plant, Aucklandia, belonging to the compositae grow- 

 ing on the mountains which surround Cashmere. He advocated 

 its introduction into the Himmalayahs, within the British domin- 

 ions, where it would form a valuable adjunct to the wealth of the 

 hill people. 



In 1842 he returned to Europe, with his health shattered by in- 

 cessant exposure in a tropical climate, and began the classification 

 and arrangement of the Siwalik fossils, presented by himself and 

 Captain Cautley to the British Museum, and that of the Hon. 

 East India Company. After spending two years in the arrange- 

 ment of his material, he undertook his great work, the "Fauna 

 Antiqua Sivalensis," with every facility given him that could ensure 

 his success. The Court of Directors gave him full pay, and the 

 government made a grant of ;,^iooo, for the preparation of 

 the fossils for exhibition in the Palaeontological gallery of the 

 British Museum. He estimated the time necessary for the com- 

 pletion of his work to be six years, and within three had made 



* Productive Resources of India, p. 259. 

 ■}• Trans. Linncan Sec, vol. xix., p. 23. 



