904 REPORT—1899. 
Section K.—BOTANY. 
PRESIDENT OF THE SEcTIoN—Sir Gzorce Kine, K.C.LE., LL.D., M.B., F.R.S: 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14. 
The President deliyered the following Address:— 
A Sketch of the History of Indian Botany. 
Tue earliest references in literature to Indian plants are, of course, those which 
occur in the Sanskrit classics. These are, however, for the most part vague and 
obscure. The interest which these references have, great as it may be, is not 
scientific, and they may therefore be omitted from consideration on the present 
occasion. The Portuguese, who were the first Europeans to appear in India as 
conquerors and settlers, did practically nothing in the way of describing the plants. 
of their Eastern possessions. And the first contribution to the knowledge of the 
Botany of what is now British India was made by the Dutch in the shape of the 
‘Hortus Malabaricus,’ which was undertaken at the instance of Van Rheede, 
governor of the territory of Malabar, which during the latter half of the seven-- 
teenth century had become a possession of Holland. This book, which is in 
twelve folio volumes and is illustrated by 794 plates, was published at Amsterdam 
between the years 1686 and 1703, under the editorship of the distinguished 
Botanist Commelyn. Van Rheede was himself only a Botanical amateur, but he 
had a great love of plants and most enlightened ideas as to the value of a correct 
and scientific knowledge of them. The ‘Hortus Malabaricus’ was based on speci- 
mens collected by Brahmins, on drawings of many of the species made by Matheus, 
a Carmelite missionary at Cochin, and on descriptions originally drawn up in the 
vernacular language of Malabar, which were afterwards translated into Portuguese: 
by Corneiro, a Portuguese official in Cochin, and from that language finally done 
into Latin by Van Douet. The whole of these operations were carried on under 
the general superintendence of Casearius, a missionary at Cochin. Of this most 
interesting work the plates are the best part; in fact, some of these are so good 
that there is no difficulty in identifying them with the species which they are 
intended to represent. ‘The next important contribution to the Botanical literature 
of Tropical Asia deals rather with the plants of Dutch than of British India. It 
was the work of George Everhard Rumph (a native of Hanover), a physician and 
merchant, who for some time was Dutch consul at Amboina. The materials for 
this book were collected mainly by Rumphius himself, and the Latin descriptions 
and the drawings (of which there are over one thousand) were his own work. 
The book was completed in 1690, but it remained unpublished during the author's 
lifetime. Rumph died at Amboina in 1706, and his manuscript, after lying for 
thirty years in the hands of the Dutch East India Company, was rescued from 
a a a LE 
