Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/445

 PROSPECTUS.

PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION

In Monthly Numbers of Ten Plates each, price One Rupee, printed uniform with the

Illustrations of Indian Botany.

ICONES PLANTARUM INDLE ORIENTALIS,

OR

FIGURES OF INDIAN PLANTS,

DESCRIBED IN THE AUTHOR'S

PRODROMUS FLORAE PENINSULA INDAE ORIENTALIS ;

AND IN HIS

ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY.

NO. I, TO APPEAR IN JULY,

Almost before the 1st Number of my "Illustrations" had issued from the press, I had become sensible, that the number of plates, which the plan of that work admitted, was inadequate for the attainment of one of its principal objects, the full elucidation, namely, of the distinctive characters of the natural orders as explained in ; the descriptive portion of the work ; much of which, in consequence, remains to many, almost a sealed book, from the examples I am obliged to quote in illustration of my meaning, being often unknown to the reader. To go no further than the accompanying number I may refer to the description of Capparideae, where several examples are quoted in support of particular statements, such as Cadaba, Gynandropsis, Polanesia, &c, not one of which, though all most common plants, may be known to the majority of readers, and to such therefore can afford but little assistance towards acquiring^ correct knowledge of the peculiarities they are intended to explain. This information I am desirous of communicating through the aid of additional figures. Again when treating of " Properties and Uses" of plants, many are mentioned as meriting attention on account of properties, they are known to possess, but of whose forms the name communicates no definite idea. Thus under Dilleniacese, both Dillenia speciosa and Wormia Madagascariensis are mentioned as desirable additions to the ornamental shrubbery, but whoin, of the many persons who may have read these encomiums, who have never seen either the plants themselves, or a figure, can form a just conception of their fitness for the purpose indicated. Almost every order treated of, affords similar examples, and many of them most common plants. In conversation plants are often spoken of, as endowed with valuable properties, but about which we may remain as much in ignorance as before, however common the plant, if we happen not to know the name, and have no figure to consult on the occasion. To supply such a book of relerence is another object of these figures. For want of figures Dr. Ainslie's Materia Medica of Hindoostan, to compile which cost him nearly 20 years of incessant application and research, remains to this day, little better than a monument of abortive labour, so few persons of the many in this country who consult it, possessing sufficient acquaintance with the plants named, to be able to recognise them even when laid before them, and fewer still, to go in search of them when wanted. Hence, of nearly ,500 species of plants named in that work, as used for medicine, food, or in the arts, scarcely one-tenth are known to Europeans, and perhaps not more than a third to Natives generally, and of which non-Botanical readers have no other means of acquiring a knowledge, than through the oral communications of natives, whose acquaintance with the plants indicated, being entirely traditional, without any guide to direct them always to the same plant, is often, as likely to he wrong as right. This is no imaginary statement, it is one, the truth of which I have seen verified in a thousand instances. Another, and not the least important purpose of these figures therefore is, to give a value to that work, by making known through correct delineations, the plants meant by the Author, and at the same time, to establish the Native names, of at least so many of our indigenous plants, on a firm basis, by combining them with representations of the objects named. Such a work still remains an important desideratum to all classes of the community.

To attempt all this by the publication of Coloured Plates, would only tend to defeat my object, since the heavy cost, and great length of time required to colour each plate separately, after printing, by the hand would perhaps greatly abridge the usefulness of the work, as well by retarding its progress, as by limiting its circulation to the wealthier classes. My wish is to diffuse as quickly, and as extensively as possible, a knowledge of Indian Plants, by publishing as many as possible in the shortest period of time, and at the lowest charge. To attain these objects, the figures will be prepared in the style adopted in the accompanying specimens, two of which are copies of plates already published in the Illustrations, and the other two copied from copper plate engravings. The first were selected to admit of comparison with the originals, to enable those who contemplate supporting the work to judge, how far such figures are fitted to supply the place of coloured ones in communicating a knowledge of the plant represented. Still further to reduce cost, and increase the rapidity of publication, it is not my intention to give letter-press descriptions, but refer for these to my Prodromus, by numbering the plates uniform with the running numbers of that work, except in cases where new plants, are introduced; and then their place in the arrangement will be indicated by a double number, and a description given, printed in such a form, as to admit of its being either pasted on the back of the plate, or kept separate. For such descriptions no additional charge will be made. By the adoption of this plan, these figures will form, so far as they go, a Pictorial Index to the Prodromus and to the new species described in my Illustrations of Iodian Botany. Utility and an