xvu 



Society, and in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, and of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society. He also communicated several important papers 

 on botanical subjects to the Linnean Society, of which may be specially 

 mentioned that on Aucklandia Costus, the Cashmeer plant which yields 

 the Kostos of the ancients ; and that on Narthex AssafoetidcE, which was 

 the first determination of the plant, long contested among botanists, which 

 yields the assafoetida of commerce. He had found it growing wild in the 

 valley of Astore, one of the affluents of the Indus. 



But his main work at this time was the determination and illustration of 

 the Indian Fossil collection presented by Captain Cautley and himself to 

 the British Museum and to the East India Company. The bulk of the 

 specimens were still imbedded in matrix. Sir Robert Peel's Government 

 gave a liberal grant to prepare the materials in the national museum for 

 exhibition in the Palseontological Gallery. Falconer was entrusted with the 

 superintendence of the work, and rooms were assigned to him by the 

 trustees in the British Museum. At his instance and under his superin- 

 tendence a series of casts of the most remarkable of the Sewalik fossils v^^as 

 prepared and presented by the Court of Directors of the East India Com- 

 pany to tlie principal museums in Europe. Under the patronage of the 

 Government and of the East India House an illustrated work was also 

 brought out, entitled " Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis." In less than three years 

 there appeared nine parts of this work, each containing twelve folio plates, 

 executed in a style rarely equalled and never surpassed. No fewer than 

 ] 123 specimens are figured in these plates ; and of many specimens three, 

 four, or five diiferent views are given. Besides the Sewalik fossils proper, 

 the 'Fauna Antiqua' includes illustrations of a very valuable and important 

 series of mammalian remains from the pliocene deposits of the valley of the 

 Nerbudda, together with illustrations of the miocene fauna of the Irrawaddi, 

 and of Perim Island in the Gulf of Cambay. The letter-press of the work 

 did not keep progress with the plates ; and at the close of 1847, before the 

 arrears could be brought up. Dr. Falconer was unfortunately compelled, by 

 the expiration of his leave, to return to India, where he found it impossible 

 to continue the work by correspondence at a distance from the specimens. 

 It is hoped, however, that the manuscript notes and memoirs which he has 

 left behind will form a complete key to this great work on Indian Palse- 

 ontology. 



On his return to India in 1848, Dr. Falconer was appointed Superin- 

 tendent of the Calcutta Botanic Garden, and Professor of Botany in the 

 Medical College. In 1850 he was deputed to the Tenasserim Provinces to 

 examine the teak forests, which were threatened with exhaustion from reck- 

 less felling and neglected conservation. His report, suggesting remedial 

 measures, was published by the Bengal Government. In 1 852 he pubKshed 

 a memoir recommending the introduction into India of the quinine-yielding 

 Cinchonas, and indicating the hilly regions in Bengal and the Neilgherries 

 in Southern India as the most promising situations for experimental nur- 



VOL. XV. C 



