country till the publication of the Pharmacopoeia of India. Mr. Clarke in his edition of Roxburgh's Flora Indica writing in 1874, truly observed that "Roxburgh contains all the Economic Indian Botany known to him, and we have added very few economic facts since. * * * We have had plenty of Government and other reports, some very large and expensive ones it is true, but we have very little economic work by persons competent as botanists. * * * Roxburgh is most trust- worthy in his Economic botany, and contains virtually all that is known on the subject."[1]
In the beginning of the nineteenth century, John Flemming contributed a valuable paper on the medicinal plants of this country. It was a monograph of no inconsiderable value and was published in the Asiatic Researches, Vol. XI, for 1810 under the title "A Catalogue of Indian Medicinal Plants and Drugs with their names in Hindustani and Sanskrit." For the first time, the scattered information on the subject was collected and placed before the medical profession.
The most important work, a work which is referred to by all writers on indigenous drugs composed during the early part of the last century, was the Materia Indica of Ainslie. He spent the period of his Indian exile in Madras, and has given a very satisfactory account of the drags in common use in that Presidency.
The formation of the Medico-physical Society of Calcutta, contributed not a little to the study of indigenous drugs. In the Transactions of that Society were described for the first time some of the vegetable drugs of this country. Wallich, Horace Hayman Wilson, Dewan Ram Comal Sen, and several others brought to the notice of the profession many native remedies.
The labors of Dr. J. F. Royle deserve special mention; for he paid especial attention to the economical plants of this country. The Botanical Gardens of Saharanpore owe a great deal to his labors. In his works on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine, Materia Medica, and Botany of the Himalayan mountains,
- ↑ Clarke's edition of Roxburgh's Flora Indica, Calcutta, 1874, Preface, p. iii.
