JACK'S LETTERS TO WALLICH, 1819-1821. 195 



yesterday. 107 If I had anticipated so long a passage, during which 

 I have had very little to do, I would have carried down with me 

 a part of the specimens to work at on the way. One mischanter 

 befel me, the box which contained my description book happened 

 to be in a cabin below, which was set afloat one night by a sea 

 through an open port, and it got most thoroughly and completely 

 soaked ; I have been obliged to make a copy of the greater part 

 of it, but one good effect has resulted, that in doing so I have per- 

 fected the descriptions and put them in shape to be immediately 

 printed, and shall commence thereon as soon as I arrive at Ben- 

 coolen. 168 I hope when I arrive there I shall receive letters from 

 you by the Coromandel, which will probably arrive almost as soon 

 as we ourselves; and also by Watson. I hope in dispatching the 

 specimens, you have taken care to preserve for yourself a complete 

 set. We may wish to refer to some of them. I wish we had not 

 done away with the arrangement, of those of which there were 

 duplicates from those which are the only specimens, which is the 

 case with a great many, and certainly with all of which you had 

 not previously received specimens. There were several of these 

 that I should have liked to have ascertained and made descriptions 

 of along with you. You will however distinguish in going over 

 them, as well as I could, such as are of interest, and when neces- 

 sary we can refer to them afterwards. I shall be anxious to hear 

 what discoveries you make among them. There are several parti- 

 cular points and queries I want from you: the best way will be to 

 put them down in order, that you may have them before you at 

 once, and comply with them when convenient and at leisure. In 

 the first place I wish to have copies of the descriptions you made 

 of several plants, some before, and some as we went along. These 

 are principally your descriptions of : — 



1 Fagraea obovata. Sylhet etiam Singapore. 109 



2 Strophantus Penang. 170 



167. Raffles wrote to the Duchess of Somerset under date "off 

 Sumatra, Feb. 12th, 1820" saying that he had just left Tappanooly. On 

 the 27th, he was off Natal, and in a letter to Marsden states that Jack 

 was with him. Thus we get two dates for visits to Tappanooly, one just 

 previous to Feb. 12th, and Jack's i.e. 23rd to 26th. As there are many 

 slight printing errors in the Memoir of the life of Baffles suspicion falls 

 less on Jack 's than on Raffles ' dates. 



168. This is a reference to the first series of descriptions of Malayan 

 Plants, Malayan Miscellanies, vol. i., 1820. Naturally the greater number 

 of the plants described came from Penang. 



169. Wallich described this plant in his and Carey's revision of 

 Roxburgh's Flora Indica, ii. p. 33. It seems that it was familiar to him 

 from Sylhet before Jack found it _in Singapore. Specimens were dis- 

 tributed by Wallich under his No. 1595 which Jack had communicated to 

 him. 



170. StropTianthus Jackianus, Wallich in his Catalogue No. 1643, being- 

 specimens which Jack had sent to him. But the plant is now transferred 

 from Strophantus and becomes WrigMia dnbia, Spreng. It grows near 

 the coast of Penang. 



K. A. Soc. No. 73. 1916. 



