REVIVAL OF BOTANICAL EXPLORATION 273 



came into the room while I was writing, requests me 

 to put you in mind of her Dairy. If any piece of odd, 

 unusual, old, or middle-aged china should fall in your 

 way, she will be thankful in the extreme for your re- 

 membrance." In point of fact, the pair of them had got 

 the craze very badly. Sir George Staunton did not fail to 

 attend to their wishes. Several consignments of valuable 

 porcelain were sent to London, to the delight of Lady 

 Banks and the surprise of Sir Joseph, to whom it was a 

 matter of a new Discovery. He had no idea, until he saw 

 these things, that porcelain was almost a lost art since 

 European colouring and imitations came into vogue. 



The return of peace, after the long contest in which 

 nearly every part of the world was involved, was hailed 

 by few with such welcome as by the naturalists. There 

 would be no more dangers of capture at sea, and no 

 longer any interference, under a " little brief authority," 

 with the local work of Explorers and Collectors. 



Some persons were fortunate enough to escape annoy- 

 ance throughout the whole period of the war, as in the 

 case of those under the protection of the East India 

 Company. At Calcutta, Canton, Ceylon, etc., the botan- 

 ists were able to pursue their tranquil career, which was, 

 as a rule, devoted to economic cultivation for the use 

 of the natives. But their consignments to England were 

 much diminished, while better times were awaited. 

 Again, a man like Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, holding 

 the Dutch possession of Java, was by his great abilities 

 not only able to govern the country better than it had 

 been governed before, and to introduce some civilization 

 into the interior of the Island, but to investigate its 

 natural productions. In the botanical department he was 

 assisted by a young American surgeon, Thomas Horsfield, 

 who had been in Java since 1804 studying the flora 

 of the island. 1 When Raffles was appointed to the com- 



1 Dr. Horsfield's collections are now with the Linnean Society. 

 T 



