W hen arranging thé plan of this work, the second Number of which is this day published,
I could not anticipate thé liberal support which has been extended to it, by having placed at my
disposal copies of thé magnificent collection of drawings of East Indian plants formed under the
direction of the late excellent Dr. Roxburgh, so often quoted in öür Prodromus under the
abbreviated title of E. 1. C. Mus. (East India Company’s Museum) For this favour the lovers
of the amabilis söiêntia are solely indebted to the liberality and public spirit of Dr. Wallich,
the present assiduous Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic garden, under whose charge the Originals
are placed. Not calculating on siich an acpession to my means of carrying on the work, it was
iny intention, in the first instance, to confine myself to the representation of Peninsular plants, and
to have numbered the figures, not consecutively, blit according to the general number under which
they are described in our Prodromus.
T he introduction of Roxburgh’s figures renders a deviation from this paR of my original plan
necessary, on which account it is now my intention to number the whole series consecutively*
adding however tö the Peninsular plants, the general number of the Prodromus, both, to facilitate
reference to the verbal description, and to point out, by a glance at the number, those which are
ascertained to be datives of this part of In dia.
I may here observe that Roxburgh’s drawings are generally On so large a scale as to render
the introduction into this work bf fac similes of the originals quite impossible. To obviate that
inconvenience, and at the same time to prevent the risk of misrepresentation, portions only will be
taken when that can be done without injuring the Character of the flgiire, bilt when suCh a curtailing
will diminish its usefulness as a guide to the knowledge of the spëciës, as in the case of
Nephelium rubrum, No. 24, a feduced figure of the whole will be given, as in figure No. 25,
which is the same plant. Marly of his figures will be introduced into the early numbers.
W hile correcting the proof sheet óf this notice I received ffoih Dr. Wailich, a letter, in answer
to ofte of mine transmitting for his examination arid opinion copies of the two figures just
quoted, from which I take the liberty of making the following extract approving of this plan.
te I had the pleasure to receive' yestérday your letter of the 30th ultimo, and the two proofs of
Nephelium rubrum lithographs. The reduced one is excellent in aïï respects, and no doubt this
plan will answer far better than having double plates, which in many cases would not even prove
sufficient. I repeat it, in my humble opinion the manner of the reduction is exactly as I would
wish it to be.” Thus sanctioned, in the course I had chalked out for myself, I can no longer
hesitate about pursuing it, arid for the future shall avoid giving double plates of the same subject,
except where they are absolutely indispensable to the perfect elucidation of the species.
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