DAVALLIA. 179 



{not Blnme). — Dicksonia straminca, Bonj, in Duperrey, Voy. 

 Hot. p. 280? [not Lab ill.). 



library of the FI. C. Botanic (iardciis, Calcutta.' The laudable object 

 whicli Mr. Griffith had in view in their publication is thus stated in the 

 Preface. " I have not yet become acquainted with the circumsUinces, 

 owinjf to which the Flora IiuUca has not been heretofore completed, or with 

 the reason of its being so disfi<;:iired by obscurities and typo<rraphical errors. 

 But considering it to be a positive diity of all Superintendents of public 

 institutions to make known to the fullest extent the meritorious labours of 

 their predecessors, I have availed myself of the permission of Government 

 to place on record the labours of Dr. Roxburgh in this department of 

 Botany. The neglect under which these MSS. have been buried since 

 1817, and the absolute want of his authentic Herbarium, under whicli 

 these Botanic Gardens labour, prevent me effectually from doing justice to 

 the memory of Roxburgh, beyond showing the extent to which he had 

 observed the higher Cryptogamic plants. His names probably in very 

 many instances have been passed over, and the law of priority of publica- 

 tion and definition may hinder many from being adopted. But I am 

 sure that Botanists will exert themselves and determine that his MS. 

 names shall not be passed over in favour of any other MS. names, given 

 in neglect of Roxburgh's characters, descriptions or drawings." — " I beg 

 to address myself here in i>articular to Sir Wm. Hooker, who is said to be 

 engaged in a work on the Species of Ferns.'' 



Mr. Griffith here seems to forget thai the various circumstances which 

 prevent him from doing that justice which he complains has not been ren- 

 dered to the memory of Dr. Roxburgh, must equally exist in my case, and 

 even more so ; for, iu many instances, to compensate for very inefficient 

 descriptions, he has had the original drawings to refer to : but, although 

 references are gi\en to plates apparently intended to accompany the work 

 just mentioned, and said to be reduced copies of Roxburgh's invaluable 

 series of botanical drawings, yet none such have come with the copy re- 

 ceived by me. Here then, in cases where the nomenclature of Dr. Rox- 

 burgh and Dr. Wallich may be at variance, I have to choose between the 

 generally veiy incomplete definitions now first published of the former, and 

 authentic specimens given with names, which, as well as the printed Cata- 

 logue, have been distributed with an unexamjiled liberality, of the latter. 

 The very first species which it has l)een my lot to investigate, happens to 

 be the one to which this note is appended, an Amboyna specimen received 

 from Mr. Webb. Had I lieen left to Dr. Roxburgh's character of little 

 more than four brief lines, I should have failed to determine my plant; 

 but by means of Dr. Wallich's specimen I am able to ascertain it and to 

 show that Dr. Wallich has done that justice to the mcmoiy of Dr. Rox- 

 burgh, which in this instance at least (and I fear it will be so in many 

 others) Mr. Griffith's laudable publication of Dr. Roxburgh's MSS. will 

 fail to accomplish. 



I must here again beg to repeat my feeble testimony to the immense 

 services rendered to the cause of Indian Botany by Dr. Wallich, in distri- 

 buting, with names and a Catalogue, the treasures collected by himself and 

 others in the Honourable Company's territories. The genera and species 

 (I speak especially in reference to the Ferns) are discriminated with a 

 degree of accuracy and judgment which show that they have been care- 



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