336 Dr. Hamilton on the Plants of various Parts of India. 



Filices, and some elegant Lycopodiums and Lichens, not re- 

 markable indeed for variety, but of great size and beauty. 



The cultivated parts of this Delta of the Ganges, as it has 

 been called, are not more favourable to the botanist than the 

 wastes. The plough or hoe occupies almost every spot, one 

 rice-field succeeds another ; and the houses are buried among 

 groves of Matigfera, Artocarpiis, and Bamhusa, intermixed 

 with Palmce, and are only kept above water by being raised on 

 the banks thrown up by digging ponds. In this territory the 

 wastes are generally covered with reedy grasses, almost as 

 lofty as those of Tripura. The whole aspect, indeed, of the 

 country and of its vegetation, is strange and foreign to an Eu- 

 ropean, miless to a Hollander. For four months in the year 

 every field swarms with fish, and at all times the only convey- 

 ance is by boats. 



During my stay in this part of the country, I made few 

 botanical observations, except by communications with Dr. 

 Roxburgh. I however transmitted a few descriptions and 

 drawings to Sir James Edward Smith, with whom they still 

 remain. 



During the year 1800 I was employed by the Marquis 

 Wellesley to examine the state of the country which he had 

 lately taken fi-om Tippoo Sultan, and of the province which 

 Europeans call Malabar. I landed at Madras (Chinapatana 

 of the natives), and travelled through the territory belonging 

 then to the nabob of Arcot, which Europeans call the Car- 

 natic, but it is the Draveda of the Hindus, bounded on the 

 south, at the mouth of the Kaveri, by Chola, which Europeans 

 call Tanjore, and to the north by Andhra, the sea-coast of 

 which by Europeans is usually called the Circars, as having 

 once been divided into five districts (Circar), which were early 

 ceded to Europeans by the Muhammedan princes of Andhra 

 or Tailingana. The coasts of Chola, Draveda, and Andhra 

 are usually included by Europeans under the denomination 

 of Coromandel, a name totally unknown to the natives, who 

 consider it as English, and from which we have several plants 

 named Coromandeliaiia ; as from the English word Madras, 

 with the addition of Patana (city), we have Maderaspatana, as 

 if plants grew in the streets. Both names should be avoided 

 as inconveniently long, as well as devoid of meaning in any 

 language. 



On leaving Draveda, and ascending to the elevated region 

 lately under the dominion of Tippoo Sultan, I entered the 

 ancient Hindoo territory, called by them Karnata (Latine 

 Carnata), but usually known to Europeans by the name of 



Mysore, 



