PREFACE. IX 



the hopes of any further help from his vahiable pen. In these 

 circumstances, the late Rev. Mr. Mack, with his accustomed 

 generosity, kindly offered to aid in their preparation, but he 

 had not proceeded far, when his sudden death deprived society in 

 India of one of its brightest ornaments. 



These circumstances will, it is hoped, in some measure, excuse 

 the delay that has occurred in the appearance of the Catalogue. 

 It is now presented to the public under all these disadvantages, 

 with the hope that some apology for the defects that may be appa- 

 rent in its final completion, will be admitted from the consideration 

 that this task has devolved on one who feels herself wholly unequal 

 to the performance, and has yet been impelled by the strongest 

 feelings of conjugal affection to undertake it.* 



Rachel S. Voigt. 

 Serampore, oOih July, 1845. 



• Since the above was written, an unfinished letter has been found among 

 Mr. Griffith's papers addressed to Mr. Marshman, containing some directions 

 regarding the completion of this Volume, and expressing his opinion of the 

 merits of the work, of which the following is an extract. "As regards the 

 merits of the work," he says : 



" It is the most comprehensive and scientific Catalogue of the kind that has 

 appeared, ' Roxburgh's Hortus Bengalensis' the only other one being, at this 

 advanced period of Botany, incomplete, and arranged according to an Artificial 

 not a Natural System. In this Catalogue, with the name of the plant you 

 have access to all known information regarding it, either directly in the book 

 itself, at least as regards valuable properties, or indirectly, through the copi- 

 ous list of Synonymes. Therefore characters only require to be supplied to 

 make this a complete Flora of the Environs of Calcutta. 



" It gives the general Geographical distribution of each of the Families, two 

 hundred and seventy-eight in number, and a good deal of information regard- 

 ing the specific distribution of the Indian species. And as each habitat is given 

 to each species,— not a vague one of India Orientalis, but very generally spe- 

 cific ones, — from it a complete Catalogue, as far as yet known of the distribu- 

 tion of Indian forms, may be compiled. 



" It gives a sufiiciently copious and select Synonymy and reference to 

 plates, so that as I have said, the possession of the name of the plant puts you 

 in the way of possessing all known information regarding it, by merely turn- 

 ing to the books which are quoted. 



" It gives, wherever the properties are tolerably uniform, the characteristic 

 ones under each family, and in all cases the properties (the knowledge of 

 which constitutes that very economic branch of Botany, Economic Botany, 



b 



