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

his disposal enabled him to
accomplish with justice to himself."
"The most important of Mr. Griffith's published memoirs are contained
in the Transactions of the Linnaean Society. Previous to starting on his

mission to Assam, he communicated to the Society the first two of a
series of valuable papers on the development of the vegetable ovulum
in Santalum, Loranthus, Viscum, and some other plants, the anomalous
structure of which 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