BOTAKIC GARDEN OF CALCUTTA. 117 



gnlar, and beautiful plants of this fine country that may be 

 transferred to these pages. 



What we do know of the vegetable productions of our 

 Indian territories is to be ascribed almost exclusively to the 

 munificence of the East India Company, as well as their 

 rational desire to become acquainted with the economical 

 resources of the country they govern, and to the unwearied 

 exertions of the gifted individuals in their ser\'ice. Before 

 we proceed to the more immediate details of this sketch, it 

 will not be uninteresting to trace an outline of the progress 

 of Indian botany. 



Of the earlier labours illustrative of our subject, the most 

 eminent is the Hortus Malabaricus of Henry Van Rheede 

 Van Drakenstein, governor of the Dutch settlements in 

 the East Indies. This valuable work, consisting of twelve 

 folio volumes with excellent plates, was published in the 

 latter part of the seventeenth century, and made us ac- 

 quainted with about 800 plants from Malabar. Subse- 

 quently appeared a catalogue of the plants of Ceylon by 

 Paul Hennann, the Thesaurus Zeylankus by Burrman, 

 and in 1747 the Flora Zeylajiica by Linnaeus. Little seems 

 to have been done between the date of the last work and 

 the formation of the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, which 

 took place in the year 1788 ; this was at first managed by 

 its founder, the late Colonel Kydd, but soon came under 

 the superintendence of the celebrated Dr. Roxburgh, whose 

 zeal and energy both enriched the institution and estab- 

 lished his own fame. A Hortus Bcngalensis, or " Cata- 

 logue of the plants growing in the Honourable East India 

 Company's Botanic Garden at Calcutta," was printed by 

 Dr. Carey in 1812, the year in which Dr. Roxburgh was 

 obliged to leave India on account of his declining health. 

 The manuscripts of this excellent man contain descriptions 

 of above 2500 plants, illustrated by nearly 2000 drawings 

 executed by native artists, copies of which exist in the 

 Company's Museum. From this source was compiled that 

 magnificent work, Roxburgh's Plants of the Coast of Coro- 

 mandel, in three volumes folio ; and it has also served as 

 a foundation for a Flora Indica, of which Dr. Carey has 

 published the two first volumes in octavo, extending as far 

 as the first order of the Linnsean class Pentandria. 



In 1814, when the garden was for a short period under 



