TO DR. R. WIGHT. 



xlv 



to these gentlemen just received from Malacca ? why the curiosities 

 of the place seem to be increasing instead of diminishing. I have got 

 also three boxes of live plants in good condition from the same quar- 

 ter, and 1 hope to shew a good increase of novelties in the Gar- 

 dens by July next. It is the only way, evidently to send cases, and 

 have the seeds of the localities sown in them, and then shipped. 

 By this means I have some of the grand Mangiferas of Malacca, 

 and several Palms propagated whose seeds are extremely impatient 

 of being kept dry. 



Mackaya is quite intermediate between Thymelese and Santala- 

 cese, but has more characters of the latter. Its habit is comparatively 

 peculiar. I can assure you I was often impressed with an opinion 

 that you must have opposed Arnott in the diffusiveness of his Cha- 

 racters, judging from the difference of those entirely your's, and yours 

 in partnership. I am glad to find I was perhaps right : if a man has 

 not an eye to seize at once on the prominent points of genera and 

 families etc. he never can be a helper to the Natural system. I 

 wish I had got your letter earlier, as I would have given much to 

 have known sooner that Steudel had not adopted or been acquainted 

 with Roxburgh's Flora Indica. But one of my faults is to believe 

 that every writer is industrious, assiduous, and up to the requisite 

 mark. So how could I suppose that Steudel had not quoted from 

 Roxburgh. Could I have embodied your hint, it would have shar- 

 pened what I have said to an infinite point. 



When you come to Orchidese, why not abide by Brown's Prodro- 

 mus ? Lindley on this head is not so clear as usual. I do not know any 

 thing so poor for him as his Orchidese, and especially the preface to 

 Bauers illustrations. I have lately seen, that a great character with 

 Lindley is Columnse pes elongatus : to me it appears that this arises 

 from two totally different causes, in one of which the term seems 

 to be misapplied. This I do not think has escaped Brown in his 

 Prodromus. I have not seen Kunth, but he cannot be much later 

 than Martins on Calamince. My palms will not appear before April. 

 Ripe seed of Bentinckia will be an aquisition : it is scarcely 

 distinct from Geonoma, to which it is prior. I am now doing a 

 little with the Microscope, and hope to finish something interesting, 

 upon which I have been off and on engaged for two or three 

 years. Do yon know a Sterculia with scaphiform scarious car- 



