Talk:Nathaniel Wallich
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[edit] Quote from Preface
I went to India in the year 1807, in the capacity of Surgeon to the Danish settlement of Serampur in Bengal, and immediately on my arrival had the advantage of becoming personally acquainted with the late Dr. Roxburgh, then Superintendent of the Honourable Company's Botanic Garden at Calcutta. I continued to benefit by the friendship of that distinguished botanist until 1812, when the state of my health obliged me to proceed to the Mauritius. About a year after my return to Bengal, after an absence of some months, I was honoured by a commission in the Company's Medical Service; and on the departure for Europe of my late friend Dr. Hamilton, the successor to Dr. Roxburgh, in the beginning of 1815, I was nominated to the temporary charge of the Garden at Calcutta; an appointment which the Honourable Court of Directors were pleased to confirm permanently, at the recommendation of the late Sir Joseph Banks and Dr Fleming, and of Mr Colebrooke.
The opportunities I haw enjoyed for prosecuting the study of Indian botany daring the subsequent thirteen yean, until the day of my departure for Europe, will be fully appreciated by those who are acquainted with the character and objects of the splendid establishment over which I was placed. The Botanic Garden at the time of my appointment had been in existence nearly thirty years ; during which period, by the labours of its enlightened founder, the late Colonel Kyd, and by the scientific zeal and exertions of the late Drs. Roxburgh and Hamilton, and of Mr. Colebrooke it has been enriched to an extent, which requires no other proof than that afforded by the Hortus Bengalensis, printed in 1819. The native plants contained in that publication had been fully described in Dr. Roxburgh's manuscript Flora Indica, a work of sterling merit, illustrated by nearly 2000 original drawings, made by native artiste, of which copies exist in the Library of the Honourable Company at the India House. ... In 1825 I was deputed by the Government to inspect the timber forests of the western provinces of Hindustan, when I had a favourable opportunity of examining and collecting the plants of the kingdom of Oude, the province of Rohilcund, the valley of Deyra, &c.
My last journey was in 1826 and 1827, when I accompanied a mission from the Supreme Government of British India to the Court of Ava. I ascended the Irawaddi as far as Ava, and visited the mountains in the neighbourhood of that capital; and proceeded afterwards to the lately acquired territories on the coasts of Martaban and Tenasserim.
From preface of Plantae Asiaticae rariores. Could go into wikiquote perhaps. Shyamal 09:58, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
