298 The late Mr. William Griffith. 



As it is understood that the whole of the valuable materials pre- 

 pared and collected by Mr. Griffith are consigned to the Directors 

 of the East India Company, the most confident hopes may be 

 cherished that the expectations of the scientific world will not be 

 disappointed of the full benefit which they are calculated and were 

 intended by him to confer on botanical and zoological knowledge, 

 and that the irreparable loss entailed on his widow by his early 

 death, and the sudden extinction of all those hopes of fortune, 

 honour, and reward, which his extensive knowledge and indomitable 

 energy were so well calculated to raise, will meet with such allevia- 

 tion as, to the enlightened liberality of the Honourable Court, the 

 great value of his labours, and the forlorn and ill-provided state of 

 his widow and family, may be considered to merit. 



In connection with the above we may remark, that the 

 late Mr. Griffith's private collections, MSS. and drawings are 

 now exposed at the Export Warehouse in Tank Square, pre- 

 paratory to making them over to the Government. The 

 MSS. consist of eight or ten bound volumes of botanical re- 

 searches, affording also full details of the natural productions 

 and objects of cultivation, scenery, people, &c. throughout 

 the lines of his extensive travels, together with the heights 

 and position of Passes and principal places, fixed by direct 

 barometrical and astronomical observations made by himself. 



His botanical researches as exhibited in these Manuscripts, 

 are of the most extensive and important nature, so much so 

 that their publication will constitute a new era in botanical 

 science, and confer immortal honor on the public body or the 

 individuals by whom it may be brought about. . 



Besides the vols, of MSS. above adverted to, there are 

 at least as many volumes more of scientific Botanical drawings 

 and descriptions of plants contained in the Herbarium, or met 

 with in his travels. 



In addition to his Will, dated 31st Oct. 1844, and his let- 

 ter on his death-bed, quoted in the foregoing memoir, he has 



