ACTA ET AGENDA. 567 



bay to the Cape Comorin and then to explore the coast of Coromandel, 

 but he became a victim of his untiring zeal, succumbing in Bombay to 

 the fatigues and the effects of the tropical climate on the 7th December 

 1832. 



The most eminent botanist of the Madras Presidency at that time 

 was Dr. Robert Wight, of the Madras Medical Service (born at Milton 

 in Scotland on the 6th July 1796). As Director of the Botanic Garden 

 at Madras he published, together with George Arnold Walker- Arnott, 

 the " Prodromus Florae Peninsulse India? Orientalis, " (Madras, Cal- 

 cutta, and London), comprising 2 volumes. This is, in Hooker's opi- 

 nion, the most able and valuable contribution to Indian botany that 

 has ever appeared. Later on there appeared the " Icones Plantarum 

 Indise Orientalis" with 2,101 plates, and " Spicilegium Neilgherrense." 

 In 1831 already he had published " Illustrations of Indian Botany " 

 with 40 plates. Many papers besides appeared in the " Madras Journal 

 of Science" and the "Calcutta Journal of Natural History." His 

 enormous collections of plants, chiefly from the hill districts, were pre- 

 sented to the Herbarium of the Royal Gardens of Kew. Wight died 

 in 1872. 



Leschenault de la Tour, who accompanied Baudin on his voyage to 

 the Moluccas, Java, and Sumatra, appears to have been appointed 

 director of the botanic garden at 'Pondicherry. He investigated some 

 of the southern provinces of the Peninsula, but the plants he collected 

 are chiefly from the Neilgherries, and are principally published by 

 De Candolle in his " Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vege- 

 tabilis." The Flora of the Neilgherries was also explored by George 

 Gardener, the director of the botanic garden at Peradeniya in Ceylon. 



In 1828 John Graham, a native of Dumfriesshire, arrived in India. As 

 Deputy Postmaster-General he devoted his moments of leisure to bota- 

 nical explorations. In 1839 he was able to publish his " Catalogue of 

 the Plants growing in Bombay and its Vicinity." " Considering the 

 means of communication," says Cooke, " that existed at that time, for 

 there were no railways, and travelling was difficult and tedious, one 

 cannot help being struck with admiration at the number of plants 

 brought together in this catalogue, all of which were, as Mr. Graham 

 states, personally examined either by himself or by Mr. Nimmo, and 

 most of which were correctly named." It is much to be regretted that 

 he died at the early age of 34, on the 28th May 1839, at Khandala. 



