INTRODUCTION, 
XV 
William Jack, who collected in Singapore and Penang in 1819, 
described a number of species in the Malayan Miscellanies, published 
at Bencoolen, Sumatra, which rare work has been reprinted in the 
papers relating to Indo-China, vol. ii. p. 209, with notes by Hooker 
and Mr. D. F. Hervey, published by the Straits Branch of the Royal 
Asiatic Society. 
George Porter, a schoolmaster in Penang, who was later in 
charge of the Botanic Gardens of Ayer Hitam in Penang, also sent 
plants to Wallich, which were incorporated in the Wallichian 
collections, and George Finlayson, a surgeon to the East India 
Company, during his travels on an Embassy to Siam, 1821-22, took 
the opportunity of collecting plants in the forests of Penang, the 
Dindings, and Singapore, which collections were also sent to 
Wallich. 
Mention, however, must be made of an earlier botanist:—■ 
Dr. William Hunter, who published an account of pepper 
cultivation in Penang in the Asiatic Researches in 1803. He 
published also an account of Gambir cultivation in Trans. Linn. 
Soc. in 1807. He wrote, too, a manuscript account of the plants of 
Prince of Wales Island (Penang) in 1802 or 1803. This paper, 
preserved in the British Museum, was published by the author of 
this work in the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Asiatic Society, 
No. 53, in 1909. 
Mr. W. E. Phillips, who was Governor of Penang from 1820 to 
1826, was interested in botany, and sent a number of plants to Sir 
William Hooker. These are now in the Kew Herbarium. 
Lady Dalhousie, during her residence in Penang between 1829 
and 1832, sent a small collection also to Sir W. J. Hooker, which 
included the rare Pteris Dalhousice and Lycopodium Dalhousice. 
Col. George Warren Walker collected plants in Singapore 
and Penang about 1837, His collections are at Kew and in the 
Natural History Museum. 
Hugh Cuming (1791-1865) visited Singapore somewhere 
between 1835 and 1839, and was apparently the first botanist to 
ascend Mt. Ophir. He made very extensive collections, but at that 
time chiefly in the Philippines, and apparently only made flying 
visits to the Malay Peninsula. His collections are at Kew and the 
British Museum. 
William Griffith, born 1810, was assistant surgeon to the 
East India Company in 1832, and collected plants extensively in 
Assam, Burma, Bhutan, and Afghanistan. He came to Malacca 
in 1841 and collected largely there, ascending Mt. Ophir, but 
returned to Calcutta after a year to take temporary charge of the 
Botanic Gardens there during Wallich’s absence. He returned to 
Malacca in December, 1844, but, attacked by hepatitis, died in 
February, 1845. Considering the short time — little over two 
years — that he spent in Malacca, the extent of his collections and 
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