PREFACE. 



A WORK enabling the European on his first landing 

 to inquire for every Indian plant yet known to 

 European botanists by its native name, if it has one ; 

 or to trace from the native name its scientific appel- 

 lation, must be a desideratum to all; for there are 

 none who, more or less, have not an interest in plants, 

 either as studious pursuits, as amusements, as objects 

 of commercial enterprise, or of domestic economy . 

 and but too many of us in India find, that before we 

 are sufficiently linguists to trace out a name, or 

 botanists to ascertain a plant, years and climate, 

 the pressure of business, or the deadening canker 

 of disappointment, have taken from our pursuits the 

 freshness, which alone can compensate that want of 

 energy through which every thing in India so soon 

 becomes stale and wearying, even to the most active 

 minds. 



A work then, which spares labour to all, to the 

 Native as well as to the European, may claim the 

 attention of every man who, either from motives of 

 interest or of philanthropy, desires to see the science 

 of Europe brought nearer to the resources of India; 

 and such a work the Compiler has intended. It has 

 been completed from every known source, princi- 

 pally the two volumes of Dr. Wallich's edition of 



4CC69G 



