302 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



History of the Jndian Medical Service, 1600-1913 (1914), may 

 profital3l5^ be substitutecl : 



" John Fleming was born in 1747, and entered the I. M.S. as 

 Assistant Surgeon, Bengal, on 17th Aug., 1768, becoming Surgeon 

 on 11th Dec, 1771, and, on the establishment of the Medical 

 Board on 25th May, 1786, junior Member of the Board, instances 

 of very rapid promotion. He became President of the Board on 

 8th Dec, 1800, and held that post, with an interval of furlough 

 from 24th Dec, 1802 to 31st July, 1805, until 17th Dec, 1811, 

 when he again took furlough to England. He retired on 10th Nov., 

 1813, after 45 j'^ears' service, for twenty-seven years of which 

 he had been a Member of the Board. In 1818 he was elected 

 M.P. for Gatton, a pocket borough disfranchised in 1832, but 

 only retained his seat for two years, till 1820, when he did not 

 stand again. He died in London on 17th May, 1829." (ii, 161.) 



It may be worth w^hile to bring together the scanty details which 

 I have been able to find relating to the scientific attainments of 

 the author of the Catalogue of Indian Medicinal Plants. It is 

 scarcely accurate to describe him as if he were only interested in 

 plants, as a letter addressed from Calcutta, November 11th, 1797, 

 to Sir Joseph Banks relates to "a Thibet Musk," of which he 

 was sending a living specimen : in this he describes himself as " a 

 lover of Natural History." The Catalogue, as already stated, is 

 dated from Calcutta, 1810 (Asiatick Besearches, xi, 153-196) ; the 

 re-issue (same date and place) was " printed separate (with emenda- 

 tions and some additions) for the convenience of those for whose 

 use chiefly it was compiled " ; it is an octavo volume of 72 pages, 

 and has an index and an appendix relating to " the efficacy of the 

 bark of the root of the Pomegranate tree as a remedy for the 

 tape-w^orm." 



In India Fleming was a friend of Francis Buchanan (after- 

 guards Hamilton : 1762-1829) and Thomas Hardwicke (1757-1835). 

 The former writes of him to Smith, March 3rd, 1802, as " my 

 good friend Mr. Fleming, a very great encourager and promoter 

 of natural history: you will find him a frank, pleasant, and 

 learned man, with a greater knowledge of man and manners than 

 usual. At a later date (November 4th, 1807) Hardwicke writes 

 from Calcutta: "Mr. Fleming and myself have often indulged in 

 conversation about you : he has a great desire to be better known 

 to you, but how soon he may have that opportunity I am not in a 

 position to say. He is here in the full enjoyment of health and 

 all the ease and luxury a man can wash for ; consequently he is 

 very indifferent about leaving the country " {Corres]J07ide7ice of 

 J. E. Smith, ii, 88, 120). 



On his return to England, Fleming settled in London : a 

 memorandum in the autograph collection of the Department of 

 Botany, relating to the collection of drawings hereinafter mentioned, 

 is dated from Chandos Street, Grosvenor Square, Sept. 24, 1812 ; 

 he was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society in 1813, and of the 

 Linnean Society on January 16th, 1816, at which time he was 

 residing at Gloucester Place. Fleming was also a Fellow of 



