(JO 



FLORA INDICA. 



2. In the herbarium of the British Museum there are se- 

 veral small collections, which are of great importance to the 

 Indian botanist, especially one containing many of Loureiro's 

 plants, which are not readily recognizable, at all events as to 

 species, by the descriptions in the e Flora Cochinchinensis/ 

 There are also a considerable number of specimens forwarded 

 to Sir Joseph Banks by Roxburgh, Hamilton, and Russell, 

 which are occasionally of use in determining the species de- 

 scribed by Roxburgh. It contains also a fair but not a full 

 set of the Wallichian herbarium. The British Museum also 

 contains Konig's collections and manuscripts, Kampfer's Ja- 

 pan and other plants, and Hermann's herbarium. 



3. Dr. Wight's earlier collections, which were distributed 

 in 1 832-3, have been enumerated in detail in the * Prodromus 

 Florae Peninsulae/ and have been in part described in that 

 work. Dr. Wight went back to India in 1834, and has, as we 

 have already said, devoted prodigious zeal and energy to the 

 advancement of Indian botany; he returned to England in 

 1853, with enormous collections, chiefly from the mountain- 

 ous parts of Southern India. To these we have been allowed 

 the freest access j and though the mass of duplicates is as yet 

 only partially unpacked, an admirably selected set of speci- 

 mens has enabled us to determine with accuracy all his species. 



4. The collections of Mr. Griffith were made in various 

 parts of India. Their contents may be known by a reference 

 to his posthumous notes and journals, published in Calcutta 

 under the auspices of the Indian Government; in general 

 terms they include collections from Malacca, Tenasserim, the 

 Khasia Mountains, and the whole Assam Valley, Mishmi 

 and Naga hills and the upper Irawadi, Calcutta, Bhotan, 

 Simla, Sind, and Afghanistan. It is unfortunate that these 

 fine herbaria should have been distributed promiscuously, 

 without any determinate plan, and without any reference to his 

 published notes and journals, which robs the collections of 

 half their value, and the journals of more than half theirs. 

 This is the more to be regretted, as Mr. Griffith's collections 



