Piodromus Flora. Ptninsula India Orientcdis. 179 



and, with a due liberality, communicating a share of their col- 

 lections to their European fellow labourers in science. Nor is 

 it less gratifying (speaking merely as a philosophical looker-on), 

 to see them exploring with undiminished energy the wilds of that 

 vast continent. To dwell on the munificent patronage which 

 the Directors of the Honourable East India Company have ex- 

 tended to the cause of Indian Botany, would be to speak of what 

 is known to every one who takes any interest in natural science. 

 We are however convinced that, apart from the liberal and 

 enlightened feelings which might prompt such a body as the 

 East India Company to encourage the progress of scientific dis- 

 covery, they cannot act more wisely, in a commercial and econo- 

 mical point of view, than by promoting a complete investigation 

 of tlie natural history of iheir vast territory. To a great ex- 

 tent they are at present unknown, and it is impossible to say 

 what might not result to the prosperity of India herself, from 

 a more perfect knowledge of its animals, plants, and mine- 

 rals. 



We have great pleasure in bringing the present work under 

 public notice. Dr Wight is a surgeon on the Company's 

 Madras Establishment, and during his residence in India availed 

 himself of every opportunity of examining the botany of the 

 Indian peninsula. He made very extensive collections, and, at 

 his own expense, procured drawings to be made by native artists 

 of a great nimiber of curious plants, some of which have been 

 already published in Professor Hooker's Botanical Miscellany. 

 On his recent visit to Europe, he associated himself with an emi- 

 nent botanical friend, Mr Walker-Arnott, and proceeded to 

 arrange the work, of which the first volume is before us. It 

 cannot be expected that we should here enter into any minute 

 details ; but we have examined the volume with some attention, 

 and feel bound to say, that it bears the evident traces of extreme 

 care and unsparing labour ; and is in our opinion one of the 

 most important works that have been published on Indian bo- 

 tany. It does credit to both the learned authors, aod between 

 whom, the labour of the present volume is exclusively divided ; 

 and more than that, it is honourable to the East India Com- 

 pany, that such a work should have originated under their 

 auspices ; and we recommend it to them as a useful measure, 



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