MEMOIR OF THE LATE MR. WILLIAM JACK, 
command the whole; the picquets scat- 
tered here and there along the sides of the 
hills, and. on looking back, the level line 
of forest, the only part of the whole view 
which departs from the line of beauty. 
Sometimes you see vast columns of smoke 
arise where the grass has been set on fire, 
and the wind carries the conflagration along, 
till it involves the whole side of a hill. 
When the flame is thus swept among the 
green bamboos and reeds, the air con- 
tained in their cavities becomes so rare- 
fied as to burst them with a report like a 
gun; and at some distance, these succes- 
sive explosions have the effect of a run- 
ning fire of musquetry. This burning of 
the grass is one of our expeditious modes 
of clearing a way for ourselves." 
Dinapore, May 16, 1816.—* I have 
lately had occasion to change my Moon- 
shee, and have got one who pleases me 
very much, as he really possesses a good 
deal of knowledge, and has more taste 
than most of them. Like all Orientals, 
however, he has no idea of simplicity 
ing an excellence, and attaches great 
merit to excess of ornament, metaphors, 
conceited enigmas, &c. This taste seems 
to have prevailed at a certain stage of the 
literature of every nation with which I am 
acquainted, and to have gradually yielded 
to the influence of more correct judgment. 
The Asiatics, however, have never got 
beyond this point, and there they are likely 
to remain for à good while yet to come. I 
continue to read Persian several hours a 
day, and think I have made some progress : 
. the kind assurance of my friend, Major 
E, however, who declares, that in three 
months, I shall have as good a knowledge 
of the language as most persons in India, 
must, I fear, be considered as 4 little ex- 
aggerated.” 
_Dinapore, Nov. 14, 1817— I have 
lately opened a correspondence with Dr. 
Wallich, the Superintendent of the Cal- 
_Cutta Botanic Garden, from which I expect 
to derive both pleasure and advantage. 
Till now, I have always felt at a loss in 
my ical researches, from not being 
acquainted with the progress of the science 
VOL. I. 
199 
in India, and particularly with Roxburgh's 
extensive labours and discoveries, so that 
I never could be sure that my own were 
not anticipated. It was to remedy this, 
and to obtain, if possible, a copy of Rox- 
burgh's manuscript descriptions, that I 
wished to commence an intercourse with 
the present Superintendent, who is a good 
Botanist, and a highly respectable man. 
In the first letter which I wrote to Dr. 
Wallich, I sent him some seeds, and a de- 
scription of a Lobelia, which I had found 
in Nepaul, and which did not agree with 
any published species. I received in reply 
a most friendly letter, accompanied by 
some papers of his own on Indian Botany, 
informing me that my Lobelia was a per- 
fectly new species, and soliciting further 
communications. I have since transmitted 
to him another despatch, with more plants 
which I conceive to be new; and I am 
convinced, that I possess a great many 
which are entirely so, a point which I 
shall now have the opportunity of ascer- 
taining. Our old remark, that Botany 
formed a kind of bond of friendship among 
its votaries, promises to hold good in the 
present instance.” 
Calcutta, July 19, 1818.—* I have paid 
a visit to Dr. Wallich, at the Botanic 
Garden, a short distance from Calcutta ; 
he received me with great kindness and 
warmth, and insists on my coming to stay 
with him while I remain here. He is not 
only a good Botanist, but an excellent 
physician, and much inclined to assist me 
in obtaining some situation, which may 
open a field for Botanical research, and 
connect me with himself in that depart- 
ment. He has already introduced my 
name with due acknowledgments, ina paper 
presented to the Asiatic Society, contain- 
ing an account of some new plants from 
Nepaul, one of which was communicated 
by me. Roxburgh's Flora is now in 
course of publication, and receives all Dr. 
Wallich’s additions since his time ; a new 
species of Veronica is introduced on my 
authority and described there, and I have 
no doubt that others will yet be added as - 
the printing proceeds,” 
I 
