INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 63 



his own manuscripts, and to publish what he so often men- 

 tions to be the great ultimatum of his labours, an accurate 

 and pliilosophical Flora Indise. For such a task he had no 

 rival, and he justly appreciated, in common with aU botanists, 

 the paramount importance of such a work, (already far too 

 long delayed, considering the present state of the science,) not 

 only as being absolutely necessary to ensure further sound 

 progress, but as the only means of checking that hasty publi- 

 cation of Indian plants from imperfect materials, which has 

 now thrown the Indian Flora into so great confusion. 



5. The Parisian Herbarium at the Jardin de Plantes pos- 

 sesses the valuable collections of the indefatigable Jacque- 

 mont, whose premature death deprived botany of an ardent 

 and enlightened votary, whose labours would have done much 

 to advance the science. M. Jacquemont's collections were 

 made partly in the Gangetic plain, but mainly in the north- 

 west Himalaya, a great part of which was first explored by 

 him. He entered the mountains at Massiiri, and explored 

 Garhwal and Sirmur, and ascended the Satlej into Kanawer 

 and the Tibetan province of Piti. Returning thence to the 

 plains, he visited Lahore and the Salt-range of the western 

 Punjab, and travelled by Jelam and Bhimbar to Kashmir. In 

 this (at that time) unexplored province of the Himalaya he 

 spent a whole summer, and accumulated rich collections. 

 Leaving the mountains, he travelled through Delhi, Ajmir, 

 and Nimach, across Malwah to Bombay, whence he went to 

 Piinah, on the eastern slope of the range of the Ghats, and 

 there succumbed under repeated attacks of liver-complaint, 

 brought on by hardship and reckless exposure in the pursuit 

 of his favourite science. 



The journals of Jacquemont, which were published by the 

 French Government, bear ample testimony to his great bo- 

 tanical attainments. He was evidently deeply impressed with 

 the importance of careful observations in geographical botany, 

 and noted with the utmost care the localities of his plants. 

 Had he lived to work out the result of his own labours. Hi- 



