PLANTS JAYANICtE RARIORES.

In the postscript to the ‘ Plantae Javanicse’ Dr. Horsfieldstates—“ On my arrival in England my zoological col-lections required my first attention, both with a view totheir preservation and to their exhibition in the HonorableCompany’s Museum. It was therefore no less advan-tageous to myself than important to science, that RobertBrown, Esq., with a ready and disinterested zeal, undertookthe examination and arrangement of my Herbarium.After much time and labour, every specimen of an extensiveseries of duplicates was examined, all the species of eachgenus were brought together, the entire Herbarium wasdistributed into families according to the natural method,and the basis of an accurate catalogue was formed. Bythis operation the number of species composing the Her-barium, which had previously been vaguely estimated, wasdetermined to be 2196.

“ While engaged in this arrangement Mr. Brown notedin each family those subjects which appeared to possess thegreatest interest, either on account of their novelty, or oftheir peculiarity of structure; and from the subjects thusnoted he finally made a selection, which it was pro-posed to publish under the title of 1 Planter-, JavanicceRar lores’

“ It was at the same time determined that a series offigures for the illustration of all the subjects to be describedin the work should be prepared. Although a considerablenumber of drawings had been made in Java by native