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“...PLANTS
of the
COAST OF COROMANDEL;
selected from
DRAWINGS AND DESCRIPTIONS
presented to
THE HON. COURT OF DIRECTORS OF THE
EAST INDIA COMPANY.
BY
WILLIAM ROXBURGH, M.D.
published, by their order, under the direction
OF
SIR JOSEPH BANKS, BART.
p. r. s.
VOL. I.
london:
printed by w. bulmer and co.
for george nicol, bookseller to his majesty,
PALL-MALL.
1795....”
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“...PREFACE.
*
The present Fasciculus of Plants growing on the Coast of Coromandel, being the first of a.progressive
work, with which the Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company has determined to
favour the public, it is hoped, will prove as acceptable to the lovers of Botany in general, as useful
at the Company's establishments abroad.
It is intended that the selection should be made from five hundred drawings and descriptions, pre-
sented to the Honourable Court of Directors by Dr. William Roxburgh, one of the Company's medical
servants, and their Botanist in the Carnatic; and, with a more immediate view to utility, while
preference will be given to subjects connected either with medicine, the arts, cy: manufactures, the
liberality o.f the# Jdonourable Court of Directors encourages the admission of new plants, or of such
as have hitherto been imperfectly described, although their qualities and uses may as yet remain
unexplored.
After all that has been already done, India still...”
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“...acceptable to the
" public; particularly in respect to the article of tin ore." He mentioned at the same time his having
had the honour of letters from the President of the.Royal Society, and the Honourable Charles Greville,
requesting specimens ofhis collection, which it was his intention to transmit to them, as the best means
of rendering his "discoveries useful in England. He intimated also his intention of sending tqSt* Helena,
by the ships then on departure, the seeds of such esculent and other plants, and of such treSor fflifubs
as he had then got ready, and might probably be of use in that island.
Having now determined to devote his future time entirely to the service of the India Company, the
Board of Madras was pleased, in 1780, to make an addition to his salary, which met with the appro-
bation of the Honourable Court of Directors.
Hel^inhlZw5 "0tf rng the rr; be9Ueathed 10 Sir j0Seph Banks ; but -count of it is given by
nennmgs. m his description of Tanjore, and of th e Danish colony...”
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“...following year
he made a second excursion to Columbo.
In the beginning of June, 1782, Dr. Patrick Russell, on his arrival in India, had the pleasure of
meeting with Dr. Koenig at Tranquebar, who not only communicated the catalogue of his Coromandel
collection of plants, but as an inducement to engage in Indian Botany, favoured him with a number
of specimens. From that time commenced a correspondence, which was continued till within a fort-
night of Dr. Koenig's death.
In 1784, Roenig fulfilled the promise he had given of a visit to his old friend Mr. Claud Russell,
then chief at Vizagapatam. It was on his way to Bengal; but as he made some stay at Vizagapatam,
Dr. Russell had time to submit to his examination a pretty large collection of plants made in that
district, and to profit by his assistance in arranging them/ He took the opportunity also off urging to
Dr. Koenig, (what lie had more than once hinted before in correspondence,) the propriety of trans-
mitting to the Court of Directors, a select...”
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“...India.
Considering it however as a public loss, if the design of Koenig should be entirely relinquished; and
conceiving that many descriptions and remarks would be found among his papers, whife drawings from
the living plants might be made in India, Dr. Russell resolved to attempt a work limited to the useful
plants of Coromandel; which, though perhaps less generally interesting to the Botanists in Europe, he
was inclined \o think might prove of real service to India.
His plan was first communicated to the Governor of Madras, but afterwards explained more fully in
a memorial addressed to the Medical Board; and meeting with the unanimous approbation of both, it
was transmitted to the Honourable Court of Directors.
In the interim, circular letters, with a list of the plants proposed for the first publication, was tsent
by the Medical Board to the subordinate settlements, requesting it might be favoured with any infor-
mation respecting the subjects in question, which the medical gentlemen...”
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“...PREFACE. v
#
had retained a painter constantly employed in drawing plants, which he accurately described, and
added such remarks on their uses as he had learned from experience, or collected from the natives.
Of these drawings and descriptions, which he devoted to the Honourable Court of Directors, the
first parcel was received in 1791; others followed in succession; and the last parcel, which completed
the number of five hundred, arrived in 1794. It is from these that the present Selection has been made;
but many more drawings remain in India, ready to be sent home by the first opportunity t
Dr. Roxburgh's industry has also for some years been employed in the cultivation of pepper and
indigo, in one of the Northern Circars; and, besides a letter on the qualities of the Swietenia Bark,
published by order of the Directors, he has communicated other discoveries, to be found in the Philo-
sophical Transactions, the Indian Repertory, and the Asiatic Researches. Such commendable zeal in
the...”
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“...Ebony Tree; in the first volume of
the Transactions of the Society of Lund.
Several letters, relating to the Natural History of the East
Indies; in different volumes of the Transactions of the Royal
Society of Copenhagen, and of the Society of Berlin : as also
in the Naturforscher.
A great number of plants discovered by Koenig, are found
in Retzii Observationes Botanicae. In the third Fasciculus,
are printed Koenig's Descriptiones Monandrarum; and in
the sixth, his Descriptiones Epidendrorum.
An Account of his voyage to Ceylon, in 17 7 7, is found
in Hennings's Description of Tanjore, and the Danish colony
at Tranquebar.
In part XX. of the Naturforscher is an Account of a new
Genus of Plants, called Xylocarpus.
In the ninth volume of the Commentationes of the Society
of Gottingen is a Memoir, by Professor Murray, on the Trees
which produce the Gummi Gutta, entirely drawn up from
Koenig's papers, sent to Professor Murray by Sir Joseph
Banks.
In the first volume of the Transactions of the...”
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“...PREFACE
The present Fasciculus of Plants growing on the Coast of Coromandel, being the first of a.progressive
work, with which the Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company has determined to
favour the public, it is hoped, will prove as acceptable to the lovers of Botany in general, as useful
at the Company's establishments abroad.
It is intended that the selection should be made from five hundred drawings and descriptions, pre-
sented to the Honourable Court of Directors by Dr. William Roxburgh, one of the Company's medical
servants, and their Botanist in the Carnatic; and, with a more immediate view to utility, while
preference will be given to subjects connected either with medicine, the arts, qr manufactures, the
liberality o/the# JHonourable Court of Directors encourages the admission of new plants, or of such
as have hitherto been imperfectly described, although their qualities and uses may as yet remain
unexplored.
After all that has been already done, India still presents...”
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“...to a great
depth. Cattle are penned upon the ground for some time before it
is sown, to manure it, or some other manure employed, generally
the lightest; it is then'cleared of weeds, and its surface made level,
if not so before. The seeds are mixed with much sand, and sown as
soon as the rains begin in June or July (that is in the Circars); the
sand is mixed with the seed to enable 'the sower to sow it suffi-
ciently thin; it requires to be often watered if showers are not fre-
quent, till the plants are about two or three inches high. The first
watering is peculiar; some fresh cow-dung is mixed with the water,
the chief object of which is to give the sand at the surface some de-
gree of adhesion, which prevents the strong winds that prevail at
this season from blowing away the seeds; after, it requires little or
no care, few weeds grow in such a soil as fits this culture, of course
a very little labour keepc it clean: if the season is remarkably wet,
the quality of the roots are much injured...”
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