547 



JOHN FORBES ROYLE, the only son of Capt. W. Royle, H.E.I.C., 

 was born at Cawnpore in 1 800 ; educated at the High School, Edin- 

 burgh, he was originally intended for the army, but whilst waiting 

 for an appointment to Addiscombe he studied medicine under Dr. A. 

 T. Thomson, and from him derived, in great part, that love for natural 

 history which led him eventually to relinquish the profession of arms 

 and to adopt that of physic. In 1822 he went out to India as an 

 Assistant-Surgeon on the Bengal establishment, in charge of troops, 

 and the following year was appointed to the medical duties of the 

 station at Saharunpore, together with the superintendence of the 

 Company's Botanical Gardens at that place ; a post which he held 

 for nearly ten years. Here he enjoyed ample opportunities for study- 

 ing the natural history of the Northern provinces, and employed all 

 the time which he could spare from the active duties of his profes- 

 sion in collecting specimens of plants, vegetable productions, and 

 minerals ; in amassing information of every kind bearing on the arts, 

 commercial produce, and medicines of India ; and in minutely ob- 

 serving the phenomena of tropical vegetation, as influenced by soil, 

 climate, cultivation, and surrounding circumstances. 



Dr. Royle returned to England in 1831 on furlough, bringing with 

 him collections of great extent and value ; and for several years was 

 engaged in the study, examination, and arrangement of the materials 

 he had collected, and in generalizing and digesting the facts he had 

 observed. The result of these labours was published in 1839, in his 

 " Illustrations of the Botany and Natural History of the Himalaya 

 Mountains and Cashmere," a work remarkable for the large amount of 

 useful and practical information which it contains ; including, at the 

 same time, an elaborate systematic account of the botany of these 

 parts of India, enlarged and comprehensive views of the climate of 

 the country and the influences of meteorological phenomena on its 

 vegetation, and abundant and minute details of the various vegetable 

 productions forming articles of export, or used in the arts and manu- 

 factures of the natives. Especially valuable too, in a practical point of 

 view, are the technical generalizations with which the work abounds ; 

 in which the careful study of years is brought to bear on the econo- 

 mical production of cotton, tea, corn, and other similar substances ; 

 the exact laws of scientific research being employed to indicate new 

 and improved methods of cultivation or production. 



VOL. ix. 2 P 



