INTRODUCTION. 



xi 



or large earthen vessels, some time before-hand, that they might have time to strike 

 root firmlv.; which would in many instances prevent their perishing on their passage. 

 Seeds, especially of annual plants, should be collected when ripe, and the season of 

 the year specified when they spring up, and when they flower. Seeds may always 

 be sent by post at a small expence. 



Many of the plants which are indigenous in the northern and more elevated parts 

 of Hindoost'han will not grow if immediately removed to Bengal: this would pro- 

 bably be tire case with most of those which are indigenous to" the alpine regions of 

 the Himalwyc mountains ; the Grape vine does not grow freely in Bengal, though it 

 prospers well about Patna, the different species of Melastoma have not yet been 

 preserved above two years in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, though they abound 

 in the northern and eastern parts of Bengal. The Rubia munjistha grows plenti- 

 fully among the northern mountains, but it can scarcely be kept alive near Calcutta, 

 This is also the case with the Valeriana Jata mans i, and with many other valuable 

 plants ; even the Pines, and other timbertre.es of the northern mountains, are kept 

 alive with difficulty, and are always small and stunted near Calcutta ; but were those 

 collected by any Gentleman of property and munificence and placed in a small gar- 

 den near Hwrdwar, or even as far south as Delhi; and were those nearest the east- 

 ern frontier, in a similar manner, collected and placed in a garden at Sylhet, or even 

 at Dhaka, it is probable they would prosper, and that they might in a moderate time 

 be inured to the climate of the lower parts of Bengal, 



Though desirable, it is not absolutely necessary, that the gentleman who might 

 form such a garden should be a scientific botanist; he might constantly communi- 

 cate every thing to the superintendant of the Botanical Garden at Calcutta, either 

 in a living state, or, where that was difficult, by good dried specimens, or when 

 practicable, both ways. This would ensure the propagation of all those which 

 could be naturalized there, while these Gardens would be large nurseries for the 

 preservation of those plants which will not thrive in the lower parts of Bengal, and 

 for the supplying and enriching of the Company's Botanical Garden, and even the 

 private collections of Gentlemen desirous to promote their culture. 



