b FLORA INDICA. 



however, the labour of a lifetime, and although we have un- 

 dertaken its commencement, we cannot hope to bring it to a 

 conclusion ; our progress in it must depend entirely upon cir- 

 cumstances at present beyond our control; but we have no 

 doubt that when we are compelled to abandon the undertak- 

 ing, the necessity for the completion of such a work will in- 

 duce some one to follow in our steps, and to lend a helping 

 hand to the compilation of a further portion of so indispen- 

 sable an aid to botanical research. 



We should however be wrong, were we to convey the im- 

 pression that this arduous undertaking has whoUy origiuated 

 with ourselves : on the contrary, the conviction has for some 

 years been general among botanists, that the collections accu- 

 mulated in this country were so ample, that the time had 

 fully come for the preparation and publication of a Flora In- 

 dica; and when it was known that we had returned from 

 India with large and important materials, we were invited 

 by all the most illustrious names in the science to combine a 

 revision of the labours of our predecessors with the pubhca- 

 tion of our own discoveries. Many of our friends considered 

 that for such an undertaking we possessed greater advantages 

 and facilities than had ever before been available to any bo- 

 tanist. Our collections were most extensive, having been 

 formed over a very wide extent of country, with a knowledge 

 of the great variability of species, of the chief forms of which 

 we were desirous of making our specimens illustrative ; they 

 were moreover accompanied by an extensive series of draw- 

 ings and dissections from the life, and by voluminous notes, in- 

 dicative of distribution, habit, structure, etc. It was known 

 that we intended to distribute our plants, which ought not to 

 be done without a careful examination, for the purpose of de- 

 termining their names. During this examination much of the 

 most laborious part of the preparation of a flora must neces- 

 sarily be undergone; and we were urged to put our results 

 on record for the benefit of science. Nor must we omit, in 

 the enumeration of the advantages we enjoyed, a free access 



