INTRODUCTION. XV 



William Jack, who collected in Singapore and Penang in 1819, 

 described a number of species in the Malayan Miscellanies, published 

 at Bencoolen, Sumatra, which rare work has been reprinted in the 

 papers relating to Indo-China, vol. ii. p. 209, with notes by Hooker 

 and Mr. D. F. Hervey, published by the Straits Branch of the Royal 

 Asiatic Society. 



George Porter, a schoolmaster in Penang, who was later in 

 charge of the Botanic Gardens of Ayer Hitam in Penang, also sent 

 plants to Wallich, which were incorporated in the Wallichian 

 collections, and George Finlayson, a surgeon to the East India 

 Company, during his travels on an Embassy to Siam, 1821-22, took 

 the opportunity of collecting plants in the forests of Penang, the 

 Bindings, and Singapore, which collections were also sent to 

 Wallich. 



Mention, however, must be made of an earlier botanist : — • 



Dr. William Hunter, who published an account of pepper 

 cultivation in Penang in the Asiatic Researches in 1803. He 

 published also an account of Gambir cultivation in Trans. Linn. 

 Soc. in 1807. He wrote, too, a manuscript account of the plants of 

 Prince of Wales Island (Penang) in 1802 or 1803. This paper, 

 preserved in the British Museum, was published by the author of 

 this work in the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Asiatic Society, 

 No. 53, in 1909. 



Mr. W. E. Phillips, who was Governor of Penang from 1820 to 

 1826, was interested in botany, and sent a number of plants to Sir 

 William Hooker. These are now in the Kew Herbarium. 



Lady Dalhousie, during her residence in Penang between 1829 

 and 1832, sent a small collection also to Sir W. J. Hooker, which 

 included the rare Pleris Dalhousice and Lycopodiitm Dalhousice. 



Col. George Warren Walker collected plants in Singapore 

 and Penang about 1837. His collections are at Kew and in the 

 Natural History Museum. 



Hugh Cuming (1791-1865) visited Singapore somewhere 

 between 1835 and 1839, ^^^ ^^^ apparently the first botanist to 

 ascend Mt. Ophir. He made very extensive collections, but at that 

 time chiefly in the Philippines, and apparently only made flying 

 visits to the Malay Peninsula. His collections are at Kew and the 

 British Museum. 



William Griffith, born 1810, was assistant surgeon to the 

 East India Company in 1832, and collected plants extensively in 

 Assam, Burma, Bhutan, and Afghanistan. He came to Malacca 

 in 1841 and collected largely there, ascending Mt. Ophir, but 

 returned to Calcutta after a year to take temporary charge of the 

 Botanic Gardens there during Wallich's absence. He returned to 

 Malacca in December, 1844, but, attacked by hepatitis, died in 

 February, 1845. Considering the short time — little over two 

 years^that he spent in Malacca, the extent of his collections and 



