338 Review of Indian Botany. [April, 



on Indian botany, and the two volumes now published, give a true 

 indication of the value of the two others, which are to follow immedi- 

 ately to complete the work. The Hortus Bengalensis, of which a re- 

 print appears to be imperiously called for, gives a list arranged according 

 to the Linnaean classification of all the plants which are described in 

 Dr. Roxburgh's Flora. In this list, opposite the Botanic names, the 

 Indian ones are given, together with the places of growth, names of 

 donors, duration and habit, time of flowering and of seed, with fre- 

 quent reference to figures of the plants, in the works of Rheede and 

 Rumphius. A portion of this work, extending as far as nearly to the end 

 of Pentandria Monogynia, was formerly printed, with which the inva- 

 luable additions of Dr. Wallich were incorporated. But as this volume 

 of the work has been long out of print, and as the sons of Dr. Rox- 

 burgh were anxious that the Flora lndica, on which he bestowed so 

 many years' unremitting labour, should be presented without any further 

 delay to the scientific world, Dr. Carey, at their request, has superin- 

 tended the progress of the present edition through the press : not 

 considering themselves however at liberty to make use of Dr. Wallich's 

 invaluable notes and additions, Captains Roxburgh have omitted them 

 in reprinting the first part of the work. The present edition of the Flora, 

 therefore, to be completed in four volumes, will consist of the manu- 

 scripts left with Dr. Carey by Dr. Roxburgh, without any addition. 

 We therefore miss along with Dr. Wallich's additions Dr. Carey's 

 various Sanscrit Synonymes, which added so much value to the for- 

 mer edition. 



The volumes under review extend to the end of Polyandria Poly- 

 gyria. From the nature of the work it is not easy to give an idea of 

 its contents, except by mentioning that it contains descriptions in English 

 of most of the plants usually found in India, exclusive generally of 

 those of the hills, as far as the first thirteen classes. Dr. Roxburgh's 

 high character as a botanist will be a sufficient warrant for the cor- 

 rectness of the specific descriptions. Generic characters were not so 

 much or so accurately studied in Dr. Roxburgh's time, as they are 

 now. The general reader may obtain a tolerable idea of their value 

 by turning to the several articles where the useful properties of the 

 plants are particularly described. In the first volume, we would parti- 

 cularly refer to the valuable notices respecting the several useful species 

 of Curcuma, from one of which an excellent substitute for Arrow-root 

 is procured ; — the different kinds of ginger ; — of cardamum ; — the ob- 

 servations at p. 85, respecting the manufacture on the coast, of barilla; 



