192 



Biographical Memoir of the late 



[No. Z% 



The Friend of India announcing the melancholy intelligence of 

 his death observed that " in him the science of Botany has lost one 

 of its most ardent and successful votaries. There can be no hesita- 

 tion in asserting that he was unquestionably the most eminent Bo- 

 tanist in the East. No man in our days has pursued his botanical 

 researches over so extensive a field. 



* * * * " His loss will be deeply deplored in the Scientific 

 world, in which he enjoyed so distinguished a reputation. His zeal in 

 the pursuit of botanical knowledge was genuine, and unalloyed by 

 inferior considerations. He had all that simplicity of character which 

 is so constantly found in combination with true genius. His attain- 

 ments in the science to which he devoted his energies, were of the 

 very first order; and if his valuable life had been spared there can be 

 little doubt that he would have made the most important additions 

 to the Botany of the East. But though his loss to the public inter- 

 ests will be great, it will be still greater to his friends and connec- 

 tions whose esteem he commanded by his high and noble sensibilities, 

 and whose warmest affections he secured by his amiable and bene- 

 volent disposition. 



*' The melancholy thoughts which crowd on the mind on this oc- 

 casion are increased by the reflection that scarcely three months had 

 elapsed since he entered into the most tender connection of life, and 

 that his death consigns a youthful wife to unexpected and premature 

 widowhood." 



Again on another occasion the Editor writes : " The value of his 

 labors did not consist so much in the vast collections of new plants 

 he was enabled to make, as in his philosophical researches on vege- 

 table impregnation, and the progressive development of organs, to 

 which his unremitted attention was given, but which he was not per- 

 mitted to complete. Yet, if we confine our view to the extent of his 

 labours in exploring the flora of unknown regions, beyond the limits 

 of Hindoostan, we may say without exaggeration that no individual 

 has ever been able to accomplish so much in so short a time. The 

 number of countries which he traversed during the period of 

 his Botanical enterprises, which may be reckoned from 1833 

 to 1842 is of itself .enough to fill one with surprise. His tra-r 

 vels extended from the southern limits of Mergui, to the heights 

 of Bamean and the snows of the Caucasus. They embraced 

 the Tenasserira Provinces, Assam, the Northern Division of 



