255 



the fresh-water fishes of India, daring his various travels : the impor- 

 tance and extent of these is detailed in a paper on the subject, printed 

 in the second volume of the ' Calcutta Journal of Natural History ' ; 

 and some of his discoveries in Entomology have been communicated 

 to the public by the Rev, F. W. Hope, in the eighteenth volume of 

 the 'Transactions of the Linnean Society of London.' 



He was most especially remarkable for the philosophical spirit in 

 which he invariably prosecuted his researches, and for the patience 

 with which he watched the most minute phenomenon which appeared 

 to him connected with the subjects of investigation. Some of his 

 published papers, especially those on Vegetable Impregnation, and 

 the Progressive Development of Organs, have never been excelled, 

 and rarely equalled. 



The merits of this accomplished naturalist and devoted labourer in 

 the field of scientific discovery, were appreciated and fostered by the 

 noble President of this Society while at the head of the Government 

 of India, and it is to his Lordship's kindness that the Society are in- 

 debted for some of the most interesting parts of the foregoing com- 

 munication. His loss was also recently noticed in terms of deep re- 

 gret by the present Governor-General, Sir Henry Hardinge, in His 

 Excellency's Address at the annual distribution of honours and prizes 

 at the Bengal Medical College. 



As it is understood that the whole of the valuable materials prepa- 

 red and collected by Mr. Griffith, are consigned to the Directors of 

 the East India Company, the most confident hopes may be cherished 

 that the expectations of the scientific world will not be disappointed 

 of the full benefit which they are calculated, and were intended by 

 him, to confer on botanical and zoological knowledge ; and that the 

 irreparable loss entailed on his widow by his early death, and the sud- 

 den extinction of all those hopes of fortune, honour and reward which 

 his extensive know^lege and indomitable energy were so well calcula- 

 ted to raise, will meet with such alleviation as, to the enlightened 

 liberality of the Honourable Court, the great value of his labours, and 

 the forlorn and ill-provided state of his widow and family, may be 

 considered to merit.* 



* Reprinted from the July number of the ' London Journal of Botany.' 



