406 Herbarium of the Calcutta 'Botanic Garden. [No. 5. 



healing art with the duties to which they had devoted themselves. 

 This motive actuated the whole body, but a few continued to pro- 

 secute the science for its own sake, and some of the medical officers 

 of the Madras Presidency formed with them a botanical association, 

 by which plants were examined and named, and to which the dis- 

 coveries made by members at a distance were reported. One of the 

 most distinguished of these associates was William Roxburgh, who 

 was appointed in 1/94, on the death of Col. Kyd, the Superintend- 

 ent of the Calcutta Botanic G-arden, and commeuced at once the 

 labours which have gained for him a position at the head of Indian 

 Botany, of which, indeed, as the author of the first Mora, he may, 

 in one sense, be said to be the founder. 



During a long series of years, Eoxburgh examined, described and 

 prepared drawings of the indigenous plants of India. In all pos- 

 sible cases, he cultivated them in the garden under his own eye, 

 and examined them carefully in all stages of growth. The descrip- 

 tions, which are remarkable for their accuracy, by degrees took the 

 shape of a Flora Indica, comprising all the plants of the Northern 

 Circars, in which Roxburgh resided before he came to Bengal, those 

 of Bengal proper, and such of the plants of Silhet and Chittagong 

 as were introduced by active Collectors into the gardens and flow- 

 ered there. It is therefore a nearly complete flora of the plains of 

 India from the base of the Himalaya to Cape Comorin, and con- 

 tains descriptions of most of the plants which a botanist will meet 

 with in the neighbourhood of the presidency towns or the large 

 stations. 



The drawings, more than 2,000 in number, were made in dupli- 

 cate. One set is in the Garden Library, the other with correspond- 

 ing numbers is in the India House. A selection of three hundred 

 of the more remarkable forms was published in England by Sir 

 Joseph Banks, at the expense of the Court of Directors, and out- 

 lines of many others have been introduced by Dr. Wight into his 

 Icones plantarum. The species described by Dr. Eoxburgh in the 

 Flora Indica can, in general, be readily determined from these draw- 

 ings, so that there is less occasion than might have been expected 

 to regret the absence of dried specimens. Dr. Eoxburgh probably 

 collected largely. He certainly transmitted considerable collections 



