Himalayan Journals, vol 1 | Page 9

tertiary formations at the mouth of the
Thames, and having floated about there in as great profusion as here,
till buried deep in the silt and mud that now forms the island of
Sheppey.* [Bowerbank "On the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the Isle of
Sheppey," and Lyell's "Elements of Geology," 3rd ed. p. 201.]
Higher up, the river Hoogly is entered, and large trees, with villages
and cultivation, replace the sandy spits and marshy jungles of the great
Gangetic delta. A few miles below Calcutta, the scenery becomes
beautiful, beginning with the Botanic Garden, once the residence of
Roxburgh and Wallich, and now of Falconer,--classical ground to the
naturalist. Opposite are the gardens of Sir Lawrence Peel; unrivalled in
India for their beauty and cultivation, and fairly entitled to be called the
Chatsworth of Bengal. A little higher up, Calcutta opened out, with the
batteries of Fort William in the foreground, thundering forth a salute,
and in a few minutes more all other thoughts were absorbed in
watching the splendour of the arrangements made for the reception of
the Governor-General of India.
During my short stay in Calcutta, I was principally occupied in
preparing for an excursion with Mr. Williams of the Geological Survey,
who was about to move his camp from the Damooda valley coal-fields,
near Burdwan, to Beejaghur on the banks of the Soane, where coal was
reported to exist, in the immediate vicinity of water-carriage, the great
desideratum of the Burdwan fields.
My time was spent partly at Government-House, and partly at Sir
Lawrence Peel's residence. The former I was kindly invited to consider
as my Indian home, an honour which I appreciate the more highly, as
the invitation was accompanied with the assurance that I should have
entire freedom to follow my own pursuits; and the advantages which
such a position afforded me, were, I need not say, of no ordinary kind.
At the Botanic Gardens I received every assistance from Dr.
McLelland,* [Dr. Falconer's _locum tenens,_ then in temporary charge
of the establishment.] who was very busy, superintending the
publication of the botanical papers and drawings of his friend, the late
Dr. Griffith, for which native artists were preparing copies on

lithographic paper.
Of the Gardens themselves it is exceedingly difficult to speak; the
changes had been so very great, and from a state with which I had no
acquaintance. There had been a great want of judgment in the
alterations made since Dr. Wallich's time, when they were celebrated as
the most beautiful gardens in the east, and were the great object of
attraction to strangers and townspeople. I found instead an unsightly
wilderness, without shade (the first requirement of every tropical
garden) or other beauties than some isolated grand trees, which had
survived the indiscriminate destruction of the useful and ornamental
which had attended the well-meant but ill-judged attempt to render a
garden a botanical class-book. It is impossible to praise too highly Dr.
Griffith's abilities and acquirements as a botanist, his perseverance and
success as a traveller, or his matchless industry in the field and in the
closet; and it is not wonderful, that, with so many and varied talents, he
should have wanted the eye of a landscape-gardener, or the education
of a horticulturist. I should, however, be wanting in my duty to his
predecessor, and to his no less illustrious successor, were these remarks
withheld, proceeding, as they do, from an unbiassed observer, who had
the honour of standing in an equally friendly relation to all parties.
Before leaving India, I saw great improvements, but many years must
elapse before the gardens can resume their once proud pre-eminence.
I was surprised to find the Botanical Gardens looked upon by many of
the Indian public, and even by some of the better informed official men,
as rather an extravagant establishment, more ornamental than useful.
These persons seemed astonished to learn that its name was renowned
throughout Europe, and that during the first twenty years especially of
Dr. Wallich's superintendence, it had contributed more useful and
ornamental tropical plants to the public and private gardens of the
world than any other establishment before or since.* [As an illustration
of this, I may refer to a Report presented to the government of Bengal,
from which it appears that between January, 1836, and December, 1840,
189,932 plants were distributed gratis to nearly 2000 different gardens.]
I speak from a personal knowledge of the contents of our English
gardens, and our colonial ones at the Cape, and in Australia, and from

an inspection of the ponderous volumes of distribution lists, to which
Dr. Falconer is daily adding. The botanical public of Europe and India
is no less indebted than the horticultural to the liberality of the Hon.
East India Company, and to the energy of the