1832.] Review of Indian Bolany. 135 



We now come to the time of the author of the present Flora Indzca, 

 who independent of many contributions to the transactions of learned 

 societies, and to the periodicals of the day, was principally brought 

 to notice by hisAvork entitled The Plants of the Coast of Coromandel, 

 which was published by the order, and at the expence of the 

 Honorable the Court of Directors, the selection being made from 

 five hundred drawings and descriptions presented by Dr. William 

 Roxburgh, then their Botanist in the Carnatic. With a more imme- 

 diate view to utility, preference was given to subjects connected with 

 u medicine, the arts, or manufactures ;" but new plants also were admit- 

 ted, or such as had hitherto been imperfectly described, although their 

 qualities and uses remained unexplored. 



John Gerard Kcenig, a native (it is believed) of Courland, came to 

 India in 1768, under the protection of the king of Denmark, chiefly for 

 the purpose of studying the natural history of the country : he was 

 prosecuting his botanical researches in the Carnatic, when Dr. Roxburgh, 

 who entered the service at Madras in 1766, became acquainted 

 with him. Dr. Roxburgh had applied to botany under Dr. Hope in the 

 University of Edinburgh, and bringing with him to India a love of the 

 study, he found in Dr. Kcenig an experienced conductor through a 

 wilderness as yet unexplored by either. 



On the death of Dr. Kcenig, Dr. Russel was nominated his successor ; 

 he contemplated the publication of a work on the useful plants of 

 Coromandel, which though perhaps less generally interesting to the 

 botanists in Europe, might prove of real service to India. 



Circular letters, with a list of the plants proposed for the first pub- 

 lication, were sent by the Medical Board to the subordinate settlements, 

 requesting it might be favoured with any information respecting the 

 subjects in question, which the medical gentlemen might have it in 

 their power to communicate ; and in consequence several useful com- 

 munications were received. Dr. Russel however left India before the 

 proposal could be carried into execution. But as the object was 

 approved of by the Court of Directors, the directions their letter 

 contained fell fortunately into hands well qualified for carrying them 

 into execution. 



Our author, now disengaged from the duties of his station, was pur- 

 suing his favourite study at Somalcottah, when he thus became perma- 

 nently attached to botanical pursuits. He had made experiments on the 

 cultivation of pepper and indigo; had written on qualities of the 

 Swietenia bark, and had communicated other discoveries, to the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions, the Indian Repository, and the Asiatic Re- 



