May 1, 1900.1 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
731 
A SKETCH OP THE HISTORY OF 
INDIAN BOTAKY.* 
BY SIK GEORGE KING, K.C.I.E., LL.D., M.B., F.R.S. 
(Continued from page 640.) 
Somewhat similar to Griffith in temperament and 
versatility was the brilliant Victor Jacquemont, a 
French Botanist who, at the instance of the Paris 
Natural History Musenm, travelled in India for three 
years from 1829 to 1832. During this period .Tacqe- 
mont collected largely in the GaOfjetic plain. He 
then entered the North-West Himalaya at Mussourie, 
explored Gharwal and Sirmur, ascended the Sutlej 
to Kanawer and Piti (at that time unexploLed), visited 
Caahmir, and returning to the plains, crossed Nor- 
thern Rajputana to Malwa and the Dccoan. He 
finally reached Bombay with the intention of return- 
intr to France. But at Bombay he succumbed to 
disease of the liver, brought on by hard work and 
exposure. Hia remains, after having lain in the ceme- 
tery there for lifty years, were, with that tender 
regard for the personality of het famous sons which 
France has always shown, exhumed iu ISSl, and con- 
veyed in a France frigate to find a permanent res- 
ting-place in the place of Jaequemonfe's birth. Jaona- 
mont's collections were transmitted to Paris, and his 
plants - were described by Oarabessedes and Dscaisne, 
while his non-botanical collections were elaborated 
by workers in the branches of science to which they 
respectively appertained, the whole being published 
in four volumes quarto, at the expense of the French 
Government. , n . t j- 
The roll of eminent Botanists who worked in India 
during the first half of the century closes with the 
name of Thomas Thomson, who collected plants ex- 
tensively between 1842 and 1847 in Eohilkund and 
the Punjab, and again still more extensively during 
a Government mission to the North-West Himalaya 
and Tibet which was continued from 1847 to 1849. 
Daring this period Dr. Thomson explored Simla, 
Kanawar, Piti, Cashmir, Ladak, and part of the 
Karakoram. His collections, which were larg^a and 
important, were transmitted to the Botanic Garden 
at Calcutta, and thence in part to Kew. They formed 
no insignificant part of the materials on which the 
' Flora Indica ' and ' Flora of British India ' wera 
foanded. Dr. Thomson also published an account 
of hia travels— an admirable book, though now jostled 
out of memory by the quantities of subsequently issued 
books of Himalayan travel and advanture. 
About the year 1820 a second centre of Botanical 
enterprise was established at Seharunpore, in the 
North-West Provinces. A large old garden near that 
important town, which had been originally founded 
by some Mohammedan nobles of the Delhi Court, 
was taken over by the Honourable Company, and 
was gradually put upon a scientific basis by Dr. 
George Govan, who was appointed its first superin- 
tendent. Dr. Govan was in 1823 succeeded by Dr. 
J Forbes Royle, and he in 1832 by Dr. Hugh Fal- 
coner. Di. Royle made collections in the Jumno- 
Gangetic plain, in the Lower Gharwal Himalaya, 
and in Casbmir. He was distinguished in the field 
of Economic rather than in that of Systematic Botany, 
his chief contribution to the latter having been a 
folio volume entitled ' Illustrations of the Botany of 
the Himalaya Mountains. His valuable labours as 
an Economic Botanist will be noticed later on. Hugh 
Falconer was an accomplished palaeontologist who 
devoted but little of his splendid talents to Botany. 
His great contribution to palaaontology, the value of 
which it is almost impossible to over-estimate, con- 
sisted of his exploration and classification of the 
tertiary fossils of the Sewalik range. Falconer was 
transferred to the Calcutta Garden in 1842. He was 
succeeded at Seharunpore by Dr. W. Jameson, who 
explored the Botany of Gharwal, Kamaon, and Cash- 
« From the Report of the Sixty-ninth Meeting of 
the British Aasociation for the Advancement of 
Soienoa held at Dover in September, 1899, 
mir, but who published nothing Botanical, his chief 
energies having been devoted to the useful work of 
introducing the cultivation of the China tea plant 
into British India, and this he did (as v/ill after- 
wards be mentioned) with triumphant success. 
During the first half of the century, a consider- 
able amount of excellent Botanic work was done 
in Western India by Graham, Lav.', Nimrao, Gibson, 
Stocks, and Dalzell, the results of whose, labours 
culminated in the preparation by Graham of a List 
of the Plants of Bombay, which was not, however, 
published until 18r!9 (after his death) ; in the publi- 
cation bv Stocks of various papers on tiie Botany 
of Scinde; and in the publication by Dalzell and 
Gibson in 1861 of his ' Flora of Bombay.' It is im- 
possible in a brief review like the present to men- 
tion the names of all the workers who, iu various 
parts of the gradually extending Indian Empire, 
added to our knowledge of its Botanical wealth. It 
must suffice to mention the names of a few of the 
chief, such as Hardwicke, Madden, Munro, Edgeworth, 
Lance, and Vicary, who collected and observed in 
Northern India, and who all, except the two last 
mentioned, also published Botanical papers and pam- 
phlets of more or less irapoitance ; Jenkins, Masters, 
Mack, Simons, and Oldham, who all collected exten- 
sively in Assam ; Hofmeister, who accompanied Prince 
Waldemar of Prussia, and whose collections form the 
basis of the fine work by Klotzsoh and Garcke {lieis, 
Pr. Wald.}; Norris, Prince, Lobb, and Cuming, whose 
labours were in Penang and Malacca ; and last, but 
not least, Strachey and Winterbottom, whose large 
and valuable collections, amounting to about 2,000 
species, were made during 1848 to 1850 in the higher 
ranges of the Kanraou and Gharwal Himalaya, and 
in the adjacent parts of Tibet. Iu referring to the 
latter classic Herbarium, Sir Joseph Hooker i-emarks 
that it is ' the most valuable for its size that has 
ever been distributed from India.' General Strachey 
is the only one who survives of the splendid band 
of collectors whom I have in«ntioned. I cannot con- 
clude this brief account of the Botanical labours of 
tour first period without mentioning one more book, 
and that is the 'Hortus Calcuttensis ' of Voigt. Un- 
der the form of a list, this excellent work, published 
in 1843, contains a great deal of information about 
the plants growing near Calcutta, either wild or in 
fields and gardens. It is strong in vernacular names 
and vegetable economics. 
The second period of our history begins with the 
arrival in India in 1848 of Sir (then Dr.) Joseph 
Hooker. This distinguished Botanist came out in 
the suite of Lord Dalhousie, who had been appointed 
Governor-General of India. The province to tbe ex- 
ploration of which Sir Joseph directed his chief at- 
tention was that of Sikkim in the Eastern Himalaya, 
the higher and inner ranges of which had never 
previously been visited by a Botanist, for Griffith's 
explorations had been confined to the lower and outer 
spurs. The results of Sir Joseph's labour in , Sikkim 
were enormous. Towards the end of his exploration 
of Sikkim he was joined by Dr. Thomas Thomson, 
and the two friends subsequently explored the Khasia 
Hills (one of the richest oolleoting grounds in the 
world), and also to some extent the districts of Sylhet, 
Cachar, and Chittagoag. Dr. Thomson subsequently 
amalgamated the collections made by himself in the 
Western Himalaya with those made in Sikkim by Sir 
Joseph individually, and by them both conjointly in 
Eastern India ; and a distribution of the duplicates 
after the fashion of the Wallichian issue, and second 
only to it in importance, was subsequently made 
from Kew. The number ot species thus issued 
amounted to from 6,000 to 7,000, and the individuals 
viere much more numerous than those of the Wal- 
lichian collection. The immediate literary results o£ 
Sir Joseph Hoo'Ker's visit to Sikkim were, (1) his 
superbly illustrated monograph of tlie new and magni- 
ficent species of Rhododendron which he ha i discovered ; 
(2) a similar splendid volume illustrated by plates 
founded on drawings of certain other prominent 
plants of the Eastern Himalaya which had been made 
91 
