156 



Notices of Books. 



[July 



3. — Planta Indica, quas in Montibus Coimbaturicis c&ruleis, Nilagiri 

 ■ s. Neilgherries dictis, collegit Rev. Berniiardus Schmid. Illustravit 

 Dr. Jonathan Carolus Zenker, Histories naturalis botanices que in 

 Universitate literarum Jenensi Professor. Decas I, Jena and Paris, 

 1835. 



The first decade, only, of this work illustrating the Botany of that 

 interesting region the Neilgherries, has yet reached India, but from 

 this specimen we are enabled to form some judgment of what the work 

 will be, and there is no doubt of its forming a most valuable accession to 

 botanical science. 



The part before us is in small folio, and consists of 10 coloured en- 

 gravings of plants, executed in a superior style, with numerous illus- 

 trations of the minute anatomy of each ; accompanied by descriptive 

 letter press in the latin language. 



The Reverend gentleman, by whose diligence and taste the collection 

 was formed, forwarded the specimens to Jena, where they have been 

 delineated and published, under the superintendence of the Professor 

 of Botany at the University of that place, Dr. Zenker, who has con- 

 tributed the botanical descriptions. 



Mr. Schmid, who is still at Ootaeamund, informs us that more parts 

 are expected to arrive from Europe immediately; and he adds, " since 

 the price, for which each decade is sold in Saxony, is so low as 3 riot 

 dollars, the publication can be carried on and improved, only by a 

 great number of subscribers being obtained." We hope that the work 

 will meet with the support it undoubtedly merits ; and we shall be 

 happy to receive the names of those who may be desirous of becoming 

 subscribers. 



Dr. Zenker does not inform us, in his brief opening address, what is 

 likely to be the extent of the work ; he says only, that 10 decades will 

 form a volume. 



Dr. Wight, and the authors of the work before us, will perform for the 

 Peninsula, what Dr. Wallich and Mr. Royle are doing for the northern 

 parts of India ; so that, at the present time, this country is well endowed 

 with cultivators of botanical science. But we have to introduce to our 

 readers a name, hitherto not so known to fame in India as we predicate 

 it will shortly be, but which has already acquired a high reputation in 

 Europe. We allude to Mr. Griffith, of the Madras Medical Establish- 

 ment, at present employed under the Supreme Government as a mem- 

 ber of the deputation to the Tea districts of Assam, the results of which 

 are likely to prove of such vast importance to commerce as well as to 

 science. 



When we say that it is the individual of whom we speak that Pro- 

 fessor Lindley alludes to, in the following passage of his Report on the 



