ROBERT WIGHT. 1 



Robert Wight, M. D., died at his residence, near Read- 

 ing, England, May 26, 1872, at the age of seventy-six years. 

 He was born in East Lothian, Scotland, educated at the Edin- 

 burgh High School, and professionally at Edinburgh Univer- 

 sity, where he took his medical degree in 1816. He* went to 

 India, the field of his botanical career and most useful ad- 

 ministrative activity for forty years, in 1819. He was first 

 assistant surgeon and afterward full surgeon of a native regi- 

 ment in the East India Company's service, but was soon trans- 

 ferred to the charge of the Botanic Garden at Madras, and 

 finally to that of the important cotton plantations at Coimba- 

 toor. His earliest botanical contributions occupy a conspicu- 

 ous place in Hooker's " Botanical Miscellany," commencing 

 in 1830, and in the continuation of that work under other 

 names and firms. In 1834, after a temporary sojourn in his 

 native city, appeared the first volume of a model flora, the 

 " Prodromus Florae Peninsular Indiae Orientalis," by Dr. 

 Wight and Mr. (afterwards Professor) Arnott, of which their 

 successors in the field remarked, that it is the most able and 

 valuable contribution to Indian botany which has ever ap- 

 peared, and one which has few rivals in the whole domain of 

 botanical literature. Dr. Wight returned to India immedi- 

 ately after the publication of this initial volume of the work, 

 which was never continued. In India, assisted by native ar- 

 tists whom he had trained, he brought out two quarto volumes 

 of " Illustrations of Indian Botany," with one hundred and 

 eighty-two colored plates ; his " Spicilegium Nielgherrense," 

 of similar character ; and finally his " Icones Plantarum Indiae 

 Orientalis," in six volumes, with 2101 uncolored lithographic 

 plates, and elaborate analysis, of unequal merit, many of them 

 1 American Journal of Science and Arts, 3 ser., v. 395. (1873.) 



