lvi INTRODUCTION. 



country till the publication of the Pharmacopoeia of India. 

 Mr. Clarke in his edition of Roxburgh's Flora Indica writing 

 in 1874, truly observed that " Roxburgh contains all the 

 Economic Indian Botany known to him, and we have added 

 very few economic facts since. * * * We have had plenty 

 of Government and other reports, some very large and expensive 

 ones it is true, but we have very little economic work by persons 

 competent as botanists. * * * Roxburgh is most trust- 

 worthy in his Economic botany, and contains virtually all that 

 is known on the subject."* 



In the beginning of the nineteenth century, John Flemming 

 contributed a valuable paper on the medicinal plants of this 

 country. It was a monograph of no inconsiderable value and 

 was published in the Asiatic Researches, Vol. XI, for 1810 under 

 the title " A Catalogue of Indian Medicinal Plants and Drugs 

 with their names in Hindustani and Sanskrit." For the first 

 time, the scattered information on the subject was collected and 

 placed before the medical profession. 



The most important work, a work which is referred to by all 

 writers on indigenous drugs composed during the early part of 

 the last century, was the Materia Indica of Ainslie. He spent 

 the period of his Indian exile in Madras, and has given a very 

 satisfactory account of the drags in common use in that Presi- 

 dency. 



The formation of the Medico-physical Society of Calcutta, 

 contributed not a little to the study of indigenous drugs. In 

 the Transactions of that Society were described for the first 

 time some of the vegetable drugs of this country. Wallich, 

 Horace Hayman Wilson, Dewan Ram Comal Sen, and several 

 others brought to the notice of the profession many native 

 remedies. 



The labors of Dr. J. F. Royle deserve special mention ; for 

 he paid especial attention to the economical plants of this coun- 

 try. The Botanical Gardens of Saharanpore owe a great deal 

 to his labors. In his works on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medi- 

 cine, Materia Medica, and Botany of the Himalayan mountains, 



* Clarke's edition of Roxburgh's Flora Indica, Calcutta, 1874, Preface, p. iii. 



