132 Review of Indian Botany. [April, 



investigated what was described, and described what they found to be 

 new : for at present, though there are numbers well inclined to prosecute 

 the study of Indian Botany , of whom many are placed in the most fa- 

 vourable situations for obtaining a name, at the same time that they 

 might contribute to the progress of the science ; yet that the number of 

 actual cultivators have been so few, can only be ascribed to the difficulty 

 which each has had in prosecuting a subject on which no books were 

 procurable ; and without these, we are apt to fancy that we can do no- 

 thing, or suppose that we can find nothing which has not been already dis- 

 covered. That nothing can be more erroneous is evident from the fact, 

 that even in well-explored countries, such as England, Scotland, and 

 France, many new plants have been found even in the most recent times. 

 The appearance of this work is to be considered an important cir- 

 cumstance, not only for the information itself communicated, but also 

 from its being in an English dress ; for the neophytes of science will be 

 more readily induced to enter a mansion of which the threshold is 

 made accessible. Nothing so much promotes the spreading of a 

 science as the publication of works of a popular nature and compendious 

 form, and the present will be the forerunner of many such. That 

 some attempts of this kind have not hitherto been made, can only be 

 accounted for, by the supposition, that those who have laboured to 

 acquire a knowledge of the science, surrounded as it is with great diffi- 

 culties, have rather employed themselves in exploring new fields, than 

 in endeavouring to assist others up the toilsome ascent, which they 

 had by dint of much labour themselves ascended. 



That materials have not been wanting for giving a short though 

 imperfect view of Indian Botany, may be inferred from a view of the 

 numerous species and genera of Indian Plants which are enumerated 

 in the System of. Wildenow and the Synopsis of Persoon. If the 

 Indian species in these works had been extracted and published in a 

 separate work in English, something might have been done towards in- 

 ducing a greater taste for Indian Botany. But in justice, the want of 

 such works must, in a great measure, be ascribed to the want of en- 

 couragement, and the apathy with which all endeavours to prosecute 

 any of the branches of natural, or any other science, are viewed in 

 India, and most other English colonies ; where what is pleased to be 

 styled practical knowledge, is alone valued, and the inutility of scien- 

 tific acquirement dilated on with a degree of complacency which is 

 amusing, as chiefly indulged in by those who are totally unacquainted 

 with the nature and objects of the species of knowledge they affect to 

 despise, and the ultimate tendency of which they would perhaps be the 

 more surprised to find was to produce the most certain practical results. 



