lvi 
INTRODUCTION. 
country till the publication of the Pharmacopoeia of India. 
Mr. Clarke in his edition of Roxburgh’s Flora Indica writing 
in 1874, truly observed that “ Roxburgh contains all the 
Economic Indian Botany known to him, and we have added 
very few economic facts since. * * * \y e have had plenty 
of Government and other reports, some very large and expensive 
ones it is true, but we have very little economic work by persons 
competent as botanists. * * ® Roxburgh is most trust- 
worthy in his Economic botany, and contains virtually all that 
is known on the subject.”* 
In the beginning of the nineteenth century, John Flemming 
contributed a valuable paper on the medicinal plants of this 
country. It was a monograph of no inconsiderable value and 
was published in the Asiatic Researches, Vol. XI, for 1810 under 
the title “ A Catalogue of Indian Medicinal Plants and Drugs 
with their names in Hindustani and Sanskrit.” For the first 
time, the scattered information on the subject was collected and 
placed before the medical profession. 
The most important work, a work which is referred to by all 
writers on indigenous drugs composed during the early part of 
the last century, was the Materia Indica of Ainslie. He spent 
the period of his Indian exile in Madras, and has given a very 
satisfactory account of the drugs in common use in that Presi- 
dency. 
The formation of the Medico-physical Society of Calcutta, 
contributed not a little to the study of indigenous drugs. In 
the Transactions of that Society were described for the first 
time some of the vegetable drugs of this country. Wallich, 
Horace Hayman Wilson, Dewan Ram Comal Sen, and several 
others brought to the notice of the profession many native 
remedies. 
The labors of Dr. J. F. Royle deserve special mention ; for 
he paid especial attention to the economical plants of this coun- 
try. The Botanical Gardens of Saharanpore owe a great deal 
to his labors. In his works on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medi- 
cine, Materia Medica, and Botany of the Himalayan mountains, 
* Clarke's edition of Roxburgh's Flora Indica, Calcutta, 1874, Preface, p. iii. 
