INTRODUCTION. 



IT having been necessary for the superintendent of the Honourable Company's 

 Botanical Garden to make a voyage to sea, for the recovery of his health, I embrace 

 the present occasion of his absence to bear testimony to those abilities, that zeal and 

 success, which have been so eminently displayed in bringing the Botanic Garden to 

 its -present state of perfection. This testimony, though so justly due to him, he 

 himself could not have published, nor is it probable that he would have permitted 

 any one else to have done it. I hope, however, that he will pardon a friend for at- 

 tempting it in his absence ; and in doing it I shall almost exclusively confine myself 

 to those facts which are furnished by the catalogue itself. 



The utility of Botanical Gardens is so universally acknowledged, that there is 

 now scarcely a civilized state in the world which has not one or more of them, and 

 In many instances royal munificence has been called forth to encourage or support 

 them. Many public bodies too have thought such an institution a necessary appen- 

 dage. In Europe indeed almost every private nursery is a botanical garden, stored 

 with plants from the different parts of the world ; and, expensive as these establish- 

 ments are, and great as the capitals are which are employed in them, the public de- 

 mand for their productions has been found sufficient not only to cover the expenses* 

 but also to secure a competency of wealth to their industrious owners. 



By means of these Gardens, encouragement is given to the curious in all parts of 

 the world to transmit seeds or plants to them, without fear of their bein» lost. All 

 the treasures collected by travellers with so much labour, and at such great hazard 

 and expense, are thereby preserved, and a laudable ambition to search with diligence 

 for the hitherto unobserved or undescribed productions of nature is excited and 

 maintained ; a stronger proof of the truth of this observation can scarcely be desuv 



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