Vi PREFACE. 
PAPERS CONNECTED WITH THE FOUNDATION OF THE BOTANIC 
GARDEN, CALCUTTA. 
Letter from Lirutexant-Cotoyen Rosert Kyp, Corps of Engineers, to the Governor-General and Council, 
dated 1st June 1786, proposing the formation of a Botanic Garden at Calcutta. 
In the course of last morth I did myself the honour of communicating to you some thoughts that 
occurred to me on the means of lessening or preventing a calamity to which this country has been some 
time subject. Whether. what I presumed to offer to the Board’s consideration has yet come under their 
notice-or appeared to merit it, I know not; but it has occurred to me that the subject on which 
I now propose to address you, though widely different in its nature, may not appear less important to 
you on acccunt of its immediate relation to the great national object of our ‘conquests in India in the 
extension of its commerce. 
About ten years ago, while I was on an excursion to our eastern frontier in search of health, and 
rambling through the woods which surround the garden at Fizgong in company with a friend, we 
stumbled on a tree, the unusual foliage of which attracted our notice, and which on application to the 
bark immediately discovered itself to be some species of Cinnamon. On relating the circumstance to the 
Resident, we found that this tree was not indigenous to the soil, nor was it to be found anywhere 
else in the neighbourhood; we also observed that it had not propagated, but stood alone, and had 
so far attracted the notice of the natives that they ascertained its leaves to be the same as the aromatic 
leaf known by the name of ¢qy paat, a spice universally used in Indian cookery, and generally 
imported from Assam. By theassistance of the late Captain Cowe, who then commanded at Dacca, 
I procured from the borders of the province of Assam some of the plants of the tree in question, and 
one or more of these plants were deposited in the late Governor-General’s gardens. This led to further 
enquiry, and the tree was found to be the Cassia or true Cinnamon tree, but presumably of an inferior 
species. It was also found to be a native of the Bhutan mountains, from which country the Governor- 
General likewise obtained some other specimens, in a year or two following. 
Much about this time, I believe, Captain Price, the present Marine Paymaster, but then in command 
of the Bengal squadron employed in the blockade and reduction of Pondicherry, took the opportunity, 
when touching at Colombo, to bring from thence some plants of the true Cinnamon tree, foreseeing the 
possibility of its cultivation in our provinces. These were added to the stock in the Governor-General’s 
gardens. I can aver that both trees have with very little attention thriven in an uncommon degree, and 
that last December, when I was about to leave Bengal, the Ceylon species had actually given fruit, and 
I saw a rising plantation of not less than 8 or 10 young trees. 
The East India Company, I believe, have been often jealous of the benefits accruing to the Dutch 
from their possession of the island of Ceylon. If this arises principally from its production of cinnamon, 
the Board may inform them that this very valuable tree now begins to flourish in Bengal from 
‘the stock procured about five years ago from this very island. Not expecting that this tree would have 
blossomed last year, I missed the opportunity of taking a drawing of it; but enclosed is a sketch from 
nature, of the fruit not quite ripe, at which period it assumes a different form and acquires nearly a 
purple colour, resembling the fruit of the coffee shrub. It was just beginning to blossom when I left 
Bengal in December last, but the flowers were too imperfectly expanded for me to delineate distinctly 
the sexual parts, which are in themselves very minute. 
I have likewise the honour to enclose a drawing (taken hastily) showing the disposition and hanging 
of the tree and its branches. A scale is wanted, but it may be estimated at 16 or 17 feet. I have 
further to add that the tree of the same sort supposed to be Cassia brought from the borders of Assam, 
and which, on the most authentic intelligence, I can inform the Board flourishes in the greatest abundance 
