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Notices of Books : 



[April 



XIV.— Notices of Books 



1. — Illustrations of Indian Botany; or, figures illustrative of each, of the 

 Natural Orders of Indian Plants, described in the Authors Prodromus 

 Fierce Peninsidce Indice Orientalis. — By Robert Wight, m. d., f. l. s., 

 Sfc. Sw^geon on the Madras Establishment . — Madras, Published hy J. 

 B. Pharoaii, for the Author :~Q,\^^xio pp, 218. vol. 1st. 



2. — Icones Plantarum Indice Orientalis, or Figures of Indian Plants. — 

 By Robert Wight, m. d., f. l. s., &c. Surgeon on the Madras FstU" 

 hlishment. — Madras, Published by J. B. Pharoah, for the Author : — 

 Nos. 1 to IG, vol. 1st. 



The first volume of that excellent and highly useful work, the lUus' 

 traiions of Indian Botany, is completed with the 13th number. In the 

 prosecution of his plan the indefatigable and talented author has illus- 

 trated sixty-two of the Natural Orders. Tlie descriptive accounts of 

 the botanical relations, economical uses and medicinal properties of 

 the plants, with descriptions of recently discovered and imperfectly 

 known species, are ample, and are of the highest practical value and 

 importance, to the physician, to the agriculturist, and to commercial men, 

 as well as affording, aided by the Icones, to the Systematic Botanist all 

 that he desires in illustration of the Flora of the extensive and interest- 

 ing region of Peninsular India. 



The pictorial illustrations of the 1st volume amount to 100 in num- 

 ber; they are lithographs, executed at Madras, in a style highly cre- 

 ditable to the state of the arts in India; and coloured, under the 

 author's eye, by native artists. 



The Icones may be considered, in the author's language, a ;3ic^or/a^ 

 index to the Prodromus Floras Peninsulce Indice Orientalis. They are 

 uncoloured outlines of all the species which Dr. Wight's own collec- 

 tion enables him to give drawings of, or copies from Roxburgh's and 

 other expensive and little known works. 



These two works, then, it will be seen, are unparalleled in the his- 

 tory of scientific publication for comprehensiveness and utility. 



With the 13th number of the Illustrations are published a Dedica- 

 iron to the Right Honorable John Lord Elphinstone, Governor of 

 Madras ; a Preface and Introduction ; with an Index, &c. to complete 

 the volume. From the Preface and Introduction we shall borrow 

 largely, as they tend to exemplify the scope and objects of the author's 

 works now under review, as well as to develope the progress and pre- 

 sent state of botanical science. From the body of the work it is of 



