JAMES FOliBES, F.E.S. 15 



Ttiver Nerbudda. This single Tree contpins 350 large Trunks, up- 

 wards of 8l)0J smaller stems, and measures 1800 feet in circumference." 

 I have drawn up a list of the drawings, which I have correlated with 

 the plates in Oriental Memoirs so far as they are therein reproduced. 

 It seems hardly worth while to print this, but I have placed it in the 

 Department of Botany with a copy of Mr. Williams's paper, in case 

 any should wish to refer to it. The plates in the first edition (1818) 

 of the Oriental Memoirs are scattered through the four quai-to 

 volumes; with the second edition, "revised by his daughter" (1881), 

 issued in two volumes octavo, the plates appear as a separate folio 

 volume (1835) "with explanatory notices." 



Special mention, however, may be made made of vol. xiii., which is, 

 from a botanical standpoint, the most interesting of the series. In 

 177(3 Forbes visited the Cape, where he drew three Ericas, Leuca- 

 dendron <r^7*y^;?fe?^;«, and " a remarkable Flower which growls on the 

 summit of the Table Mountain " (Disa grandiflora). These are in 

 vol. ix. with a note which indicates that the numerous blank pages 

 were intended to be filled with " drawings of Plants, Shrubs, Flowers, 

 Sea- weed and other botanical subjects " ; there is also a reference to 

 St. Helena, of which he writes : " The trees on this island are called 

 the Gum-wood, Ebony, Kedwood, and a few others of little conse- 

 quence, but Avhether the}^ are indigenous or have been brought from 

 other places I cannot learn." In 1789 he again visited the island, 

 and in vol. xiii. (tt. 98-121), he figures the " Red- Wood or White 

 Ebony" {Melhania erythroxi/lon Ait.), "a sprig of the Ebony-tree" 

 {M. melanoxylon Ait.), "the Grum-wood Tree" {Commidendrum 

 rohustum DC.), "the String-wood Tree" {Acalypha reticulata 

 Hook, f.), "the Wild Sedum or House-leek Tree" {Semper vimim 

 arhoreum L.), '''■ Stapelia, variegata, the I'inger- Plant or Carrion- 

 Plant," '" Stapelia Jiirsnta,^'' '"'■ Lycopodium cernuum, t\\e ^wck-horn 

 Fern," " the Grround-Fern " (a Xyco/?<9^//?/?«), "the Seed-leaf Fern," 

 "the Apricot- Peach," "the Velvet Thorn": these last I am not 

 able to identify for lack of opportunity of comparison with speci- 

 mens. Of these the most interesting is the Sempervivum. It is 

 "unrecorded from St. Helena, and may of course have been intro- 

 duced ; but it will be noticed that Forbes specifies it as " the ivild 

 Sedum," and we have in the National Herbarium a specimen from 

 St. Helena collected by Banks and Solander in 1771, which stands in 

 their MS. list without the indication " Hort." or " Cult." b}^ which 

 cultivated plants are usually distinguished. The only printed indica- 

 tion of any Sempervivum on the island is the comparatively recent 

 one in Melliss's St. Helena (1875): " S. sp. (?) Yellow -flowered 

 Cras^ula : cultivated and rare, in gardens on the upper land. 

 Hab. Canaries." 



Although his observations are mainly connected with his foreign 

 travel and residence, there are indications that home objects also re- 

 ceived Forbes's attention. Vol. xliii. contains a miscellaneous collection 

 of " Birds, Insects, Flowers, and Fruit " in which Ave find — the folios 

 are not numbered — ILippopliae, "a plant which grows wild on the 

 sand hills near Sandown Castle," Isle of Wight (1801) ; a series of 

 drawings of British fi'uits ; three Agarics from " the Angus hills " 



