287 



according to official reports, the astonishing number of 190,000 live 

 plants were distributed in the short space of five years, to upwards of 

 2000 gardens in India, Europe, North and South America, North 

 and South Africa, and Australia. In 1835 he undertook to conduct 

 a deputation to inquire into the prospects of tea cultivation in 

 Assam, a most unhealthy country, and on this occasion superintended 

 a botanical exploration of the whole valley. On his return to Cal- 

 cutta he was again obliged to leave India for his health, and he 

 repaired to the Cape of Good Hope, much enfeebled and in a very 

 critical state ; there however, with a partial restoration to health, 

 his latent zeal revived, and he accompanied our eminent Fellow, Mr. 

 Maclear the Astronomer Royal, upon an extensive journey into the 

 interior of the colony, botanizing diligently as he went, and trans- 

 mitting his collections to Europe for distribution with his wonted 

 liberality. 



After another short sojourn at Calcutta and ineffectual attempt 

 to resist the effects of a climate which five times drove him from 

 India, Dr. Wallich finally returned to England in 1847, relinquished 

 with regrets (that he never could banish) his arduous duties, and 

 retired upon the pension of his rank as Surgeon in the Bengal army, 

 after forty years of such incessant toil both of mind and body as has 

 never been paralleled in the history of botanical science. 



After his return to England Dr. Wallich's health gradually de- 

 clined, but his love of botany arid earnest desire to promote it never 

 forsook him. He took an active part in the meetings of our own 

 and other societies, and contributed, chiefly literary notices, to 

 various botanical periodicals. He maintained an extensive corre- 

 spondence and became a medium of communication between men of 

 science in all its branches, in this country and on the Continent ; 

 and up to within a few weeks of his decease, which took place at 

 his residence in Gower Street on the 28th of April, he was actively 

 engaged in establishing a correspondence between the museums and 

 gardens of his native and adopted countries. Dr. Wallich published 

 several important works on systematic botany in India, and a mag- 

 nificent one in this country, to which allusion has already been 

 made ; he has further the merit of having introduced the art of 

 lithography into the East. His acquirements as a botanist were 

 both varied and sound, and not confined to a familiarity with species ; 



VOL. VII. 2 F 



