i8o WILLIAM GRIFFITH 



illustrations for Lindley's Introduction to Botany and had described 

 the flower and the structure of the wood oi Phytocrene gigantea in 

 Wallich's Plantae Asiaticae Rariores^ but (a noteworthy indication 

 of his interest in Cryptogams at this time) he had supplied an 

 account of the structure and development of Targionia hypo- 

 phylla to be appended to Mirbel's classic monograph on the 

 anatomy and physiology of Marchantia polymorpha published 

 in 1832. 



His medical studies finished, Griffith sailed from England in 

 May 1832, he arrived at Madras in September and was ap- 

 pointed Assistant-Surgeon on the Madras establishment in the 

 service of the East India Company. His scientific work was 

 done in the intervals of a busy life. Only a man of great 

 energy and enthusiasm and possessed of great powers of physical 

 endurance could have done the work that Griffith crowded into 

 the \2\ years, between his landing in India and his death at 

 Malacca before the age of 35 on February 9, 1845. This time 

 was all spent in the East Indies he never returned to England. 



Deferring for the moment consideration of his scientific 

 work we may take a general survey of Griffith's movements 

 during his working life and of his labours as an explorer and 

 collector. 



After spending some months in the neighbourhood of Madras, 

 he was situated for more than two years at Mergui and collected 

 extensively in Tenasserim. He was recalled to Calcutta in 1835 

 and attached to the Bengal Presidency in order to be sent with 

 Dr Wallich and Mr M'Clelland to visit and inspect the localities 

 in which tea grew wild in Assam. Griffith's full report on this 

 enquiry led to the important economic conclusion (based largely 

 on a critical comparison of the Assam flora with the flora of 

 tea-growing regions of China) that tea might be successfully 

 grown under the conditions in Assam and similar districts of 

 India. When the other members of the expedition returned 

 Griffith was detained in Assam, where he remained during the 

 whole of 1836, making a successful expedition into the Mishmee 

 mountains only once before visited by a European. 



Early in 1837 Griffith, accompanied by only one servant, set 

 off" on an exploring expedition through the very disturbed 



