April— -JUNE, 1857.] Observations on Provincial Exhibitions. 77 



vinces, is a recommendation from the Government of Fort St. 

 George for the establishment of a BotanicalGarden at Madras and for 

 the employment of not less than two able and experienced Botanists 

 and Mineralogists who should be kept continually moving about 

 the country, in order that a thorough knowledge of the rich and 

 varied productions of Southern India might be rapidly acquired 

 and turned to account. 



In the Minute of the Right Honorable the Governor, regret is 

 expressed that nothing more (that is than assisting the Agri-Hor- 

 ticultural Society) should have been done by Government for gain- 

 ing an extensive and practical knowledge of the botanical produc- 

 tions of this province, that is the Madras Presidency. This ob- 

 servation appears to me should have been qualified with the words 

 " at present," for I believe that much has been done at different 

 times, and that we possess as good a knowledge of the Botany of 

 India including the Madras Presidency, as of any other extra Euro- 

 pean country. Much of course still remains to be done as in most 

 other countries, but the want at present is rather to systematise and 

 to render easily accessible to the public the information that has 

 been accumulated, than to make investigations by the aid of those 

 who would have to spend some time in becoming acquainted with 

 what has already been done, before they could proceed to make new 

 discoveries. That I do not take too favourable a view of what has 

 been done, it would be enough to refer to the preface, p. XI. of 

 Dr. Wight's Prodromus to the Flora of the Peninsula of India, where 

 the labours of Kcenig, of Anderson, Berry, John, Roxburgh, Heyne, 

 Klein, Buchanan Hamilton, and of the venerable Rottler, are re- 

 ferred to. Of these, several were supported by Government in 

 their investigations. Dr. Wight's own, though incomplete work, is 

 itself a record of what has been done to a certain extent, and no 

 better service could be done for diffusing a correct knowledge of 

 Peninsular Botany, than the completion of this work. In his illus- 

 trated work " Icones Florae Indise Peninsulse," he has given ex- 

 cellent representations of about 2,000 Peninsular plants, independ- 

 ent of 300 plants figured by Dr. Roxburgh in his Coromandel 

 plants, and those in Rheede's Hortus Malabaricus. Dr, Cleghorn, 



