IOR/F/4/1732/69955

The collection contains the following papers:

General Department letter, No.6 of 1838, to the Court of Directors of the East India Company, dated Simla 16th August 1838, regarding an interchange between India and England of plants and vegetable productions indigenous in the one but rare or unknown in the other country.

Governor General's Circular letter, dated 3rd July 1838, addressed to the officers in charge of the Districts in the North Western Provinces which are either in, or border upon, the Himalayan Range, requesting them to collect in the Autumn of that year [1838], and at such future periods as may be most seasonable, seeds, bulbs and tuberous roots, the produce of the Himalayan Range for transmission overland to the Court of Directors.

Letter from Dr John Forbes Royle to James C Melvill, Secretary to the Court of Directors of the East India Company, dated 31st December 1838, on the subject of the introduction of the useful and ornamental plants of England into India. With his letter, Dr Royle includes three lists of plants suitable to the Plains of Northern India and the Himalayas: 1. Annuals suited to the cold weather cultivation of the Plains of Northern India, and the summer cultivation of the Himalayas; 2. Perennials suited to the Plains of Northern India; 3. Perennials suited to the Himalayas.

Letter from Dr John Forbes Royle to James C Melvill, Secretary to the Court of Directors of the East India Company, undated, regarding seed and specimens of fine cotton grown in Naples, and its suitability for experimenting with growing in India; and recommending that the Spanish Chestnut be added to his list of plants suited to Northern India and the Himalayas.

Correspondence between James C Melvill, Secretary to the Court of Directors of the East India Company, and Dr John Lindley, Vice-Secretary, Horticultural Society of London, 30th December 1838 to 23rd January 1839, regarding the distribution of seeds from India among botanical institutions in the UK and other British Colonies; Dr Lindley's recommendation that only ornamental or useful trees and plants be sent to England which inhabit the districts in India which have a similar climate to that of England; and Dr Lindley's opinion on which seeds may be transmitted with the best hopes of success from England to India for distribution to Public officers and other residents in the Himalayan range of mountains.