^30 Illustrations of the Botany and Natural History of the [Oct. 



XI. — Illustrations of the Botany and other branches of the Natural History of the 



Himalayan Mountains and of the Flora of Kashmir,- Part II. By J. Forbes 



Royie, Esq. F. L. S. and G. S. M. R. A. S. Sfc. 



Mr. Royle's Second Part maintains its claim to the praise that the scientific 

 journals of Europe had pronounced upon his first. The introduction continues his 

 general observations on the geographical and geological structure of the great con- 

 tinent of India, drawing, for those portions, which he has not had an oppor- 

 tunity of visiting, his materials from Sykes, Calder, Hodgson, Gerard, &c. and 

 from Humboldt for the systems of mountains in central Asia. The first plate 

 also exhibits two geological sections of the Himalayan range, and a sketch of the 

 rocks from Shergati to Rogonathpur ; the former we shall hereafter transfer to our 

 pages when the introductory remarks, which break off at the 12th page, are complet- 

 ed : the latter has been already given in Mr. Everest's notes of a journey to Gha- 

 zipur, (Gleanings, iii. 129-) 



The purely botanical portion of the work commences with the Ranunculacem, of 

 which nearly a hundred species have been discovered in the Himalayas. Several of 

 them are identical with those of other countries. The Himalayan genera, with one 

 exception, are exactly those enumerated by Ledebour as inhabitants of the 

 Altai mountains : also, with exception of Helleborus and Niyella, which do not 

 extend either eastward to the Altai or southward to the Himalaya, the same genera 

 are enumerated by Meyer and Bieberstein as indigenous to the ranges of Taurus 

 and Caucasus. 



Our author's observations on the application of the plants of this family in the 

 Materia Medica of India are so valuable, that we need offer no apology for extracting 

 them entire. We would willingly follow them up by his remarks on the other natu- 

 ral families Dilleniacece, Maynoliacea, Anonacece, Menispermacece, Berberidai, &c. 

 but neither our limits, nor justice to the author would permit so extensive a 

 robbery. No one who would be acquainted either with the ornamental, the cultu- 

 ral, or the medical qualities of the Indian Flora, can dispense with the possession 

 of Dr. Royle's highly valuable labours — labours which he is now ushering to the 

 world at great expense to himself and without the same extent of patronage with 

 which the Honorable Company were wont in days of yore to encourage such me- 

 ritorious works in their servants. 



" The Ranunculacec? form a very natural family, not only with respect to struc- 

 ture and geographical distribution, but also in possessing the same sensible pro- 

 perties and modes of action on the human frama. This is owing to their contain- 

 ing in all parts an acrid principle, which Krapf ascertained to be neither acid nor 

 alkaline, but of so volatile a nature, that in most cases simple drying in the air, 

 or infusion, or decoction in water, is sufficient to destroy it ; that its activity is 

 increased by acids, sugar, honey, wine, and spirits, and is only effectually destroy- 

 ed by water and vegetable acids. {Fie, Cours. d'Hist. Nat. Pharm. vol. i. p. 373.) 

 Two vegetable alkalies, Delpia and Aconitia, the latter little known, are 

 produced by the plants of this family ; if the acrid principle be always of the 

 volatile nature that it is represented, the powerful effects attendant on the admi- 

 nistration of the root of Aconitum ferox even after it had been preserved ten years 

 must be ascribed to the presence of some principle of a more permanent nature. 

 According apparently to the proportion of the acrid principle to the rest of the 

 vegetable substance, or perhaps owing to the peculiar nature of the acrid principle 



