ii 



NOTICE OF WILLIAM GRIFFITH, 



" His note on Targionia is dated Paris, April 2nd, 1832, and in the 

 month of May of the same year, having finished his studies at the 

 London University with great distinction, he sailed from England for 

 India, which was destined to be the scene of his future labours. He 

 arrived at Madras on the 24th of September, and immediately re- 

 ceived his appointment as Assistant- Surgeon in the service of the 

 East India Company. 



" His first appointment in India was to the coast of Tenasserim ; but 

 in the year 1 835 he was attached to the Bengal Presidency, and was 

 selected to form one of a deputation, consisting of Dr. Wallich and 

 himself as botanists, and Mr. MacClelland as geologist, to visit and 

 inspect the Tea- forests (as they were called) of Assam, and to make 

 researches in the natural history of that almost unexplored district. 



" This mission was for Mr. Griffith the commencement of a series of 

 journeys in pursuit of botanical knowledge, embracing nearly the 

 whole extent of the East India Company's extra-peninsular posses- 

 sions, and adding large collections, in every branch of natural history, 

 but especially botany, to those which, under the auspices of the 

 Indian Government, had previously been formed. He next, under 

 the directions of Capt. Jenkins, the Commissioner, pushed his inves- 

 tigations to the utmost eastern limit of the Company's territory, 

 traversing the hitherto unexplored tracts in the neighbourhood of 

 the Mishmee mountains which lie between Suddiya and Ava. Of 

 the splendid collection of insects formed during this part of his tour 

 some account has been given by Mr. Hope in the Transactions of 

 the Entomological Society and in the eighteenth volume of our own 

 Transactions. 



" His collection of plants was also largely increased on this remark- 

 able journey, which was followed by a still more perilous expedition, 

 commenced in February of the following year, from Assam through 

 the Burmese dominions to Ava, and down the Irrawadi to Rangoon, 

 in the course of which he was reported to have been assassinated. 

 The hardships through which he passed during the journey and his 

 excessive application produced, soon after his arrival in Calcutta, 

 a severe attack of fever : on his recovery from which he was appointed 

 Surgeon to the Embassy to Bootan, then about to depart under the 

 charge of the late Major Pemberton. He took this opportunity of 

 revisiting the Khasiya Hills, among which he formed a most exten- 

 sive collection ; and having joined Major Pemberton at Goalpara, tra- 

 versed with him above 400 miles of the Bootan country, from which 



