JAMES FOREES, F.R.S. 13 



showed that his name was not inchidecl therein, hut in the Dictionary 

 of National JBiocjraphy (xix. 397) is a somewhat full account of his 

 eventful life. Born in London in 1749, he went out to Bomhay in 

 1765 as a writer to the East India Company. After holding various 

 important posts in India, he returned to England in 1784 : " he had 

 not only acquired a competency, but, being a good draughtsman 

 and keen observer, had tilled a hundred and fifty folio volumes 

 ('j2,0D0 pages) wdth sketches and notes on the fauna, flora, manners, 

 religions, and archeology of India." He resided in London, where he 

 became acquainted with Banks and was elected F.K.S. in 1803 ; 

 he Ihad previously (1788) married the daughter of Joseph Gay lard 

 of Stanmore, Middlesex, which was his headquarters for the remainder 

 of his life. In 1790 he visited Italy, Switzerland, and Germany ; the 

 war then prevented him from entering France. In April 1803, during 

 the peace of Amiens, Forbes went to Holland with his wdfe and 

 daughter, and thence arrived in Paris the day aftei- hostilities had 

 been renewed and the English made prisoners. After seven or eight 

 months, during which he seems to have enjoyed considerable liberty, 

 he was sent with his family to Verdun — a place with which the 

 presant War lias made us familiar : it may be mentioned incidentally 

 that the collection of drawings at Oscott, to be referred to later, in- 

 cludes a large series taken by l^'orbes at this place. In June 1804 

 Forbes was allowed to return to England ; he arrived at the end of 

 July and settled at Stanmore, and devoted himself to the production 

 of his Oriental Memoirs (4 vols. 4to, 1813-15), illustrated with 

 numerous plates drawn from the sources indicated in the text and 

 embracing the subjects already mentioned. After Waterloo Forbes 

 went to F^rance, where he remained for nearly two Aears ; he then 

 returned to England, but in 1819 again visited the continent ; at Aix- 

 la-Chapelle he was taken ill, and died on Aug. 1. 



It was doubtless the (often excellent) coloured plates, from drawings 

 by himself, in the Oriental Memoirs, and the numerous remarks on 

 plants scattered through the work, that were considered to entitle 

 F'orbes to be described as "a student in Indian botany." A botanist 

 in the strict sense of the word he could hardl}^ be st^ded; but in the 

 somewhat liberal estimate which entitles to a j^lace in the Biographical 

 Index he would seem to deserve inclusion therein ; and the drawings 

 themselves, of which I propose now to speak, tend to establish the 

 claim. 



Within a week of my first acquaintance with the Oriental 

 Memoirs I was visiting Oscott College, the diocesan seminary for 

 the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham. Passing through the 

 library, my eye w^as attracted by a large volume open at a page on 

 which I at once recognized the original of one of the plates I had 

 lately seen. A party from some society at Birmingham had visited 

 the College that afternoon and the volume had been brought out for 

 their inspection ; and to this circumstance I owe my acquaintance 

 with the very remarkable collection of di-awings of which this forms 

 a pai-t. 



To these volumes Mr. J. G. Alger, the wTiter of the notice of 

 Forbes in the Dictionary of National Bioyrapliy, makes some refer- 



