INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 45 



IV. Summary of the labours of Indian Botanists, and of the 

 materials at our disposal for prosecuting the Flora Indica. 



A. Publications of importance to Indian Botanists. 



The masterly sketcli of the progress of botanical science 

 in continental India^ which is contained in the introduction 

 to Wight and Arnott's Prodromus, a work which is in the 

 hands of every botanist, renders it unnecessary for us to enter 

 into such full details as would otherwise be requisite, regard- 

 ing the older Indian botanists and their collections. A brief 

 notice of some works, to which we shall frequently have oc- 

 casion to refer in the course of our labours, is however de- 

 sirable. 



The earliest scientific work on the Flora of India is the 

 ' Hortus Malabaricus' of Van Rheede (Governor of Malabar), 

 which was published in Holland about the end of the seven- 

 teenth century, in twelve volumes, with figures of nearly 

 seven hundred plants. It is a very remarkable book, from 

 the general excellence of the plates, which are faithful repre- 

 sentations of the plants. Malabar was for many years so little 

 explored, that till very recently a great many of the plants 

 figured were not familiarly known : within the last twenty 

 j^ears, however, its flora has been investigated by so many 

 botanists, as to be considered nearly exhausted; and as the 

 novelties wiU consist chiefly of obscure plants, we may con- 

 clude that when the collections now in Europe (particularly 

 Wight's) are described, Rheede's plants wiU be all identi- 

 fiable. 



Rumphius' ' Herbarium Amboinense' is of much less value 

 as a work of reference than that of Rheede, because the 

 plates are in general much inferior. They are often greatly 

 reduced in size, and frequently bear too little resemblance 

 to the plants which they are meant to represent, to render it 

 useful to quote them. The flora of Amboyna is not so well 

 known as that of Malabar, but Blume has done much to- 



