Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and The Neighbouring Countries | Page 3

appeared calculated to throw light on this still obscure and difficult subject. These papers are entitled as follows:--
1. On the Ovulum of Santalum album. Linn. Trans. xviii. p. 57.
2. Notes on the Development of the Ovulum of Loranthus and _Viscum_; and on the mode of Parasitism of these two genera. Linn. Trans. xviii. p. 71.
3. On the Ovulum of Santalum, Osyris, Loranthus and Viscum. Linn. Trans. xix. p. 171.
"Another memoir, or rather series of memoirs, "On the Root-Parasites, referred by authors to Rhizantheae, and on various plants related to them," occupies the first place in the Part of our Transactions which is now in the press, with the exception of the portion relating to Balanophoreae, unavoidably deferred to the next following Part. In this memoir, as in those which preceded it, Mr. Griffith deals with some of the most obscure and difficult questions of vegetable physiology, on which his minute and elaborate researches into the singularly anomalous structure of the curious plants referred to will be found to have thrown much new and valuable light.
"In India, on his return from his Assamese journey, he published in the 'Transactions of the Agricultural Society of Calcutta,' a 'Report on the Tea-plant of Upper Assam,' which, although for reasons stated avowedly incomplete, contains a large amount of useful information on a subject which was then considered of great practical importance. He also published in the 'Asiatic Researches,' in the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' and in the 'Transactions of the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta,' numerous valuable botanical papers; but the most important of his Indian publications are contained in the 'Calcutta Journal of Natural History,' edited jointly by Mr. MacClelland and himself. Of these it may be sufficient at present to refer to his memoir "On Azolla and Salvinia," two very remarkable plants which he has most elaborately illustrated, and in relation to which he has entered into some very curious speculations; and his still unfinished monograph of "The Palms of British India," which promises to be a highly important contribution to our knowledge of a group hitherto almost a sealed book to European Botanists.
"But the great object of his life, that for which all his other labours were but a preparation, was the publication of a General Scientific Flora of India, a task of immense extent, labour and importance. To the acquisition of materials for this task, in the shape of collections, dissections, drawings and descriptions, made under the most favourable circumstances, he had devoted twelve years of unremitted exertion. His own collections, (not including those formed in Cabool and the neighbouring countries) he estimated at 2500 species from the Khasiya Hills, 2000 from the Tenasserim provinces, 1000 from the province of Assam, 1200 from the Himalaya range in the Mishmee country, 1700 from the same great range in the country of Bootan, 1000 from the neighbourhood of Calcutta, and 1200 from the Naga Hills at the extreme east of Upper Assam, from the valley of Hookhoong, the district of Mogam, and from the tract of the Irrawadi between Mogam and Ava. Even after making large deductions from the sum-total of these numbers on account of the forms common to two or more of the collections, the amount of materials thus brought together by one man must be regarded as enormous. The time was approaching when he believed that he could render these vast collections subservient to the great end which he had in view. He had some time since issued an invitation to many eminent botanists in Europe to co-operate with him in the elaboration of particular families; and he purposed after a few years' additional residence in India to return to England with all his materials, and to occupy himself in giving to the world the results of his unwearied labours. But this purpose was not destined to be fulfilled, his collections have passed by his directions into the hands of the East India Company, and there can be no doubt, from the well-known liberality of the Directors, which this Society in particular has so often experienced, that they will be so disposed of by that enlightened body as to fulfil at once the demands of science and the last wishes of the faithful and devoted servant by whom they were formed. It is hoped too, that the most important of his unpublished materials, both in drawings and manuscripts, will be given to the world in a manner worthy of the author and of the rank in science which he filled."--Proceedings of the Linnaean Society, No. xxv, 1845.
To the foregoing brief sketch which was read before the Linnaean Society at the Anniversary Meeting 24th May 1845, it is scarcely necessary to make any addition. It is worthy of remark however, as showing how talents sometimes run