1837.] 



of a Work on Indian Botany. 



471 



some degree, this defect, which even the most carefully drawn charac- 

 ters, cannot always avoid, owing to the inadequacy of language to find 

 terms sufficiently precise for the designation of the innumerable forms 

 which the vegetable kingdom presents, and especially for distinguishing 

 the varying forms which the same plant, when produced under cir- 

 cumstances tending to increase or diminish its luxuriance, is apt to 

 exhibit. 



The insufficiency of language alone, to convey just ideas of the 

 forms of natural objects, has led naturalists, ever since the invention 

 of engraving, to have recourse to pictorial delineation, to assist the 

 mind through the medium of the senses ; and, prior to the time of Lin- 

 naeus, not without good cause, since nothing could be more vague 

 than the language then employed in description. Impelled by this 

 cause, the number of figures some of the older writers published, is 

 truly astonishing. The precision of modern scientific language, the 

 generalization of the innumerable objecis of natural history into classes, 

 orders, tribes, and families, and the accuracy and minute details which 

 the representationsofrecentartistspresent,have fortunately all combined 

 to diminish the necessity for the innumerable figures of the older natu- 

 ralists, the latter cause having increased their cost so greatly, as ma- 

 terially to diminish their production, even to the extent required for 

 the elucidation of the rapid advances natural history is now making. 



The vegetable treasures of India have undoubtedly been highly 

 honoured by the magnificence of the works dedicated to their illustra- 

 tion, as those of Rheede, Roxburgh, and Wallich, amply testify ; but, 

 unhappily for science, the first is very rare, and they are all so costly, 

 that few can afford to purchase them, while, from their size, they can 

 only be conveniently consulted in the library. In spite, however, 

 of these drawbacks to their more general use, they have been of im- 

 mense service to Indian Botany, and are alike honourable to their au- 

 thors and to the countries which produced them, while the value of 

 the last is vastly enhanced, by several very admirable memoirs on dif- 

 ferent natural orders by some of the most distinguished living botanists. 



The work which I am preparing to enter upon, is of a humbler, but I 

 hope not less useful, description ; its object being to furnish, at 

 the cheapest possible rate, a series of accurate figures of plants, 

 with copious analysis of the parts of fructification, so as, in the words 

 of a highly talented correspondent(the author of the tabular view of the 

 generic characters of Roxburgh's Flora Indica), to supply the Indian 

 botanical amateur with the * one thing needful' towards acquiring a 

 correct knowledge of the principles of the natural method of classifi- 

 cation, by presenting him with a series of diagrams, if I may so call 



