Foreign Notices : — India. 623 



India in 1814, and died in England. The flora of India, however, was not 

 lost to science ; for his friend Dr. Carey published two volumes of it at Se- 

 rampore, and inserted in it, besides the plants described by Dr. Roxburgh, all 

 those which had been successively discovered by himself, Messrs. Wallich, 

 Jack, and other botanists. This work is arranged according to the Linnean 

 system, and contains the first five classes. 



After Dr. Roxburgh's death, the superintendence of the Calcutta garden 

 was confided to Dr. Wallich, whose talents and activity, seconded by the 

 protection of the Company, have raised the establishment to a high degree of 

 prosperity. More than 300 gardeners or workmen are attached to it ; and the 

 objects more particularly held in view are, the naturalisation and diffusion of 

 useful plants, and the preservation of the rarer vegetables of the different 

 parts of India for study. Numerous travellers, sent out at the expense of the 

 Company, traverse all the countries subject to its domination, and, in concert 

 with the English dispersed over that vast empire, are continually adding to the 

 riches of the Company's garden and collections. Dr. Wallich himself tra- 

 velled, in 1820, through the country of Nepal, which, being situated at the 

 base of the great Himalayan Mountains, presents a vegetation entirely dif- 

 ferent from that of Bengal. After this, although labouring under severe 

 diseases caused by fatigue, he visited Penang, Singapore, the kingdom of 

 Ava, and some other parts of India. Besides this, he sent collectors into 

 the districts to which he could not go in person ; and by these various means 

 collected a great mass of vegetables, living and dried. 



These collections have already enriched the science of botany with nume- 

 rous discoveries. Several of the plants collected by Dr. Wallich have been 

 inserted in the Prodromus Florce Nepalensis of Don, and in various general 

 works published in Europe. Dr. Wallich himself has, as has been said above, 

 inserted a great number of them in the Flora Indica ; and has commenced the 

 publication of two works intended to make known the principal discoveries in 

 a more complete manner. The first of these is his Tentamen Florce Nepa- 

 lensis, which contains the full description, accompanied with a lithographic 

 figure, of the principal vegetables of that country. Two numbers have already 

 appeared, each containing twenty-five plates. Besides its botanical importance, 

 this work deserves notice, from the circumstance of its being the first con- 

 taining botanical figures lithographed in India, and drawn by native painters. 

 Dr. Wallich's second work, which is much more magnificent than the other, 

 is intended to give descriptions and coloured figures of the rarest plants of 

 Asia. It is to consist of three volumes. The first and second numbers, 

 which have just made their appearance, announce that this collection will 

 be one of the most valuable of which the science has to boast, and will rival 

 the great works of Rheede, Rumphius, and Roxburgh. 



Besides the capital works of Roxburgh and Wallich, there are others which 

 the East India Company has encouraged or protected. MM. Koenich, Heyne, 

 Carey, Patrick, Russel, Rottler, Klein, Wight, Finlayson, &c, have traversed 

 various parts of India, for the purpose of examining its vegetation. For about 

 fifty years back, all the collections of dried plants made by these zealous tra- 

 vellers have been sent to London, and are preserved in the Company's 

 museum. The very immensity of these materials has shown the honourable 

 directors of that institution the impossibility of rendering them useful, without 

 the cooperation of a great number of observers. By a decision remarkable 

 for its bounty and liberality, the Court of Directors has instructed Dr. Wallich, 

 who is now in London, to distribute these valuable collections among the 

 principal botanists of Europe, at the same time taking suitable measures to 

 insure their publication. This liberal distribution has already commenced, and 

 it is likely that, through the generosity of the Company, the whole of the 

 plants collected in India will soon be added to the mass of known vegetables. 

 Their number is estimated at seven or eight thousand species ; and it may 

 easily be conceived how many new facts, ideas, and connexions will arise from 

 this immense addition to our botanical knowledge. The East India Com- 



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