; 
might be obtained which would be approximately complete. This end has, 
to some extent,been attained by.-the effects £f official and other re- 
* • * tf> * J & 
, ' \ f > 
sidents and also fey the labours of a German collector sent out from » \/ ■/ 
> ■ ■ i ... ^ v/ T 
the Royal Botanic Garden at.Calcutta of which I was until lately the 
Superintendent, A great deal however still remains to be done in the 
way of exploring botanically the interior of the peninsula. I consider 
it therefore highly desirable .that the arrangement should be carried 0 
out which your Government have recently sanctioned for the continuatio 
of m v Materials in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 
' The completion and publication of -thed topew di aB s Flora which your 
Government desire would be much hastened if your Government would ag¬ 
ree to allow the. tash which I have undertaken single-handed to -be shar 
-ed by Mr. H.N.Ridley,Superintendent of the Botanic Garden of Singapore, 
* „ ' 
* 
Mr. Ridley and I have discussed the matter on several occasions and 1 
understand from him that he has made substantial progress in deseri- 
+ , ’ , * 
\ 
bing the Malayan members of the group known as Monocotyledons_ , I would 
/ 
therefore suggest for your favourable consideration whether it would 
• . * 
not be advisable to allow Mr, Ridley to .take charge of that section of 
Flora,leaving to me the group named Dicotyledons of which I have alrea 
-dy described a large portion. If your Government agree to this propo¬ 
sal, I would further suggest that Mr, Ridley might be allowed to elabo¬ 
rate it and to publish his Flora of it on his own responsibility,and 
without reference tqme. Should his section be published in advance of 
i 
mine,I would suggest that, my, portion should be published in a style 
uniform with that, of Mr. Ridley as regards paper,type and binding. 
I have communicated the views explained in the preceeding para¬ 
graph to Mr. Ridley who,as you are aware,is shortly about to return to 
► 
Singapore, 
As regards my own proposedportion(Dicotyledons) > I may explain 
that I have on. account of my. health,been obliged, since my retirement 
from the service of the Government of India in 1898, to spend the win¬ 
ter fcarlf of each year in Italy. Hitherto I have devoted only my sum¬ 
mons to working at the Malayan Flora in the Kew Herbarium, But, since 
the sanction by your Government of a monetary grant .to the Asiatic 
Society of Bengal for the completion of my Materials in the pages of 
their Journal,I have arranged to carry on the work also in winter. The 
ra,te of production should thus be much accelerated, I have recently 
sent the MSS of the thirteenth Hoi of my Mater_ia_ls to the Secretary uo 
\ -the Asiatic Society for publication, and I hope soon to be able to send 
\ * 
<*? a further instalment. 
