pupils of great scientific promise, Mr. Slack and Mr. Valentine, he made rapid progress in the acquisition of botanical knowledge.  The first public proofs that he gave of his abilities are contained in a microscopic delineation of the structure of the wood and an analysis of the flower of Phytocrene gigantea, in the third volume of Dr. Wallich’s ‘Plantæ Asiaticæ Rariores’; and in a note on the development and structure of Targionia hypophylla, appended to M. de Mirbel’s Dissertation on Marchantia polymorpha, both published in 1832.  So highly were his talents as an observer appreciated at this early period, that Dr. Wallich speaks of him as one “whose extraordinary talents and knowledge as a botanist, entitle him to the respect of all lovers of the science;” and M. de Mirbel characterizes him as “jeune Anglois, très instruit, très zélé et fort bon observateur.”

“His note on Targionia is dated Paris, April 2nd, 1832, and in the month of May of the same year, having finished his studies at the London University with great distinction, he sailed from England for India, which was destined to be the scene of his future labours.  He arrived at Madras on the 24th of September, and immediately received his appointment as Assistant-Surgeon in the service of the East India Company.

“His first appointment in India was to the coast of Tenasserim; but in the year 1835 he was attached to the Bengal Presidency, and was selected to form one of a deputation, consisting of Dr. Wallich and himself as botanists, and Mr. MacClelland as geologist, to visit and inspect the Tea-forests (as they were called) of Assam, and to make researches in the natural history of that almost unexplored district.

“This mission was for Mr. Griffith the commencement of a series of journeys in pursuit of botanical knowledge, embracing nearly the whole extent of the East India Company’s extra-peninsular possessions, and adding large collections, in every branch of natural history, but especially botany, to those which, under the auspices of the Indian Government, had previously been formed.  He next, under the directions of Capt. Jenkins, the Commissioner, pushed his investigations to the utmost eastern limit of the Company’s territory, traversing the hitherto unexplored tracts in the neighbourhood of the Mishmee mountains which lie between Suddiya and Ava.  Of the splendid collection of insects formed during this part of his tour some account has been given by Mr. Hope in the Transactions of the Entomological Society and in the eighteenth volume of our own Transactions.

“His collection of plants was also largely increased on this remarkable journey, which was followed by a still more perilous expedition, commenced in February of the following year, from Assam through the Burmese dominions to Ava, and down the Irrawadi to Rangoon, in the course of which he was reported to have been assassinated.  The hardships through which he passed during the journey and his excessive application produced, soon after his arrival in Calcutta, a severe attack of fever: on his recovery from which he was appointed Surgeon to the Embassy to Bootan, then about to depart under the charge of the late Major Pemberton.  He took this opportunity of revisiting the Khasiya Hills, among which he formed a most extensive collection; and having joined Major Pemberton at Goalpara, traversed with him above 400 miles of the Bootan country, from which he returned to Calcutta about the end of June 1839.  In November of the same year he joined the army of the Indus in a scientific capacity, and penetrated, after the subjugation of Cabool, beyond the Hindoo Khoosh into Khorassan, from whence, as well as from Affghanistan, he brought collections of great value and extent.  During these arduous journeys his health had several times suffered most severely, and he was more than once reduced by fever to a state of extreme exhaustion; but up to this time the strength of his constitution