272 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



Raj. Mr. Robinson's account * had prefixed to it by the Editorial 

 Oommifctee of the Madras Literary Society an admirable digest of 

 the history of the islands down to 1845, and this preface, with the 

 paper that follows it, has been made the basis of the ofl&cial account 

 of the group.t From the time of Mr. Robinson's visit till 1876 

 no account of the islands had been published, though in 1873 

 they were visited by Dr. Shortt.J Mr. Hume in 1875 paid a visit to 

 the Archipelago, his object being mainly an ornithological survey, 

 but with characteristic energy he made a botanical collection in some 

 of the islands visited by him, and refers to the species that he col- 

 lected or observed in his account of this visit.§ A series of scientific 

 visits have recently been paid to this group by H. M. I. M. Inves- 

 tigator. In October, 1887, Chitlac was visited, but no botanical col- 

 lecting was done. II Again in May, 1889, Anderut and Kiltan were 

 visited, and collections of botanical specimens were made by Dr. 



* " Description of the Lacoadive Islands," by W. Robinson, Esq., of the Civil 

 Service ; " Madras Jonrn. of Lit. and Science,'' vol. xiv., pp. 5-46 (1847). 



t " Imperial Gazetteer of India," ed. ii., vol. viii., pp. 392-396 (1886). Much of this 

 article is a paraphrase of Mr. Robinson's account, many sentences being taken 

 verbatim, though without acknowledgment, from the Madras Journal. The compiler 

 accredits to Mr. Robinson one passage in the paragraph on population ; this passage, 

 though enclosed within quotation commas, differs rather more than many of the 

 unacknowledged sentences. The paper by Mr. Robinson being essentially " official," 

 the writer of the Gazetteer may not have been technically bound to acknowledge the 

 source of his information ; this can hardly, however, apply to the editorial preface, 

 which is appropriated without remark. In doing so the " Gazetteer " somewhat 

 inexactly speaks of Kalpeni as the " ' Kaluftee ' of Ibn Batuta," although the writer 

 of the paraphrased digest has been careful to say that " no distinct mention of the 

 Laccadives occurs in Ibn Batuta" (" Madras Journ.," xiv. 2), and as carefully indicates 

 that the passage in which Kaluftee is given as the name of one of the principal 

 inhabited Laccadive Islands occurs in the Tolifat-al-Mujahidin ("Madras Journ.," xiv.3). 

 The identification of Kaluftee with Kalpeni is altogether arbitrary; it is quite as 

 likely that Korati is intended. 



J Shortt; Monograph of the Cocoanut Palm; or, Cocos nucifera, p. 16 (Madras, 

 1888). 



§ Hume, " The Laccadives and the West Coast" ; " Stray Feathers," vol. iv., pp. 413, 

 460 (1876). 



II Carpenter, "Administration Report of the Marine Survey of India,'' year 

 1887-88, p. 7. 



