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ous, than any hitherto enjoyed, and the active employment of collectors sent abroad from the Hon. Compa¬ 
ny's botanic garden at Calcutta, the author is indebted for most valuable contributions, to a number of his 
Jxieads, whom it may be sufficient to name, to indicate the benefit, he is proud to have derived from their 
assistance. Lieut. A. Gerard ; Assistant Surgeon J. Gerard; Dr. G. Govan; Capt W, S. Webb ; Sir Ro¬ 
bert Colquhoun, and the 1 Ion. E. Gardner, have most liberally lent that aid to botanical accumulations in the 
new region ot the northern mountains of India, which was to be expected from their zenl for science J com¬ 
bined with the advantages of their local situation. 
The number of descriptions, drawings, and specimens thus accumulated,is more considerable, than coul,| 
have been anticipated; particularly if the sphere of the collection had been restricted to Nipal proper. Rut 
the extensive field, laid open to the author’s personal observation on his visit to the hills, and the still more 
extended tract, from which the above-named Gentlemen enabled him to gather further supplies, have been 
comprised within the plan of his present attempt, as connected by general analogies of site and climate, with 
the more immediate object of his labours. Although, therefore, the great valley of Nipal and the surround¬ 
ing mountains, together with the tracts between Nipal anil its frontiers, bordering on Tirhoot and Chupra, 
have furnished him with his amplest harvest, yet he has derived very considerable additions from the conti¬ 
guous districts of Kainaon,$hrcenagttr, Sinnore, and several portions of the Himalaya range. Such of these, 
as are most remarkable and interesting, will find a place amongst the selections, which the author now pro¬ 
poses to publish, and which will comprehend all those plants, that are most valuable for their n°velty, their 
peculiarity, and their usefulness. 
In undertaking a publication of so novel a character in Calcutta, as an extensive Botanical work, illus_ 
trated by figures, the author has necessarily to contend with no ordinary difficulties and is far from veu- 
turingto aspire at perfection, which is equally denied by his limited abilities, and by the peculiar disadvan¬ 
tages of executing such a work iu a country, so unfavourable to undertakings of that nature. He can, 
therefore, only pledge himself to exhibit the plants by faithful descriptions, observations on their habitati¬ 
on, mode of growth, employment, native names, <fcc. and by plain but accurate representations, accompa¬ 
nied by the necessary dissections of the flowers, and fruits; while he is compelled to resign all attempts at 
emulating the classical perfection and graphic elegance of similar botanical works in Europe to those, 
more bountifully gifted than himself, and more favorably situated iu regard to the many facilities, which 
the presses at home place at their disposal:—facilities, which must long be unknown to publishers iu India. 
With regard to the plates the author begs to add, that had it been necessary to have them executed on 
copper, by native artists, he should scarcely have ventured on the present publication. About nine years 
ago, he was induced to make such an attempt, in a work he w as then preparing on the plants of India, 
on a plan similar to that, adopted by his predecessor at the Botanic garden at Calcutta in his “Plants of 
the coast of Coromandel,” published in England; and on that occasion found it necessary, not only to su¬ 
perintend the engraving with unremitting attention, but even to conduct the striking oft’ the impressions 
himself. The labour, which a series of engravings on copper would have imposed upon him, and the lit¬ 
tle tamiliarity which lie could be supposed to possess w ith such avocations, would have precluded the ap¬ 
pearance of his present undertaking. Its publication is therefore, chiefly due to the establishment of the 
Government Lithographic press of Calcutta, by which alone, under existing circumstances, the engravings 
can be executed with any reasonable degree of facility. That they will he executed with all the exactness 
that is to be wished, and w ith a degree of perfection highly creditable to the infant state of the Lithographic 
