My task is done: would it were to do again, so it could the while make you ours and like the interminable tales of the doomed Scheherazade, it should indeed be long ere it were ended. But evening is far advanced, and however joyed all here would be to "have and to hold" you altogether, my brief and airy tenure has expired. I have no power to keep you longer than a day, and now unwillingly resign you "homeward bound" to the talismanic agency which drew you hither.-Farewell! May favoring winds-cheering and constant as

Ne'er roughen'd by those cataracts and breaks,
That humour interposed too often makes,"

and gentle gales-harmless as poets' "balmy zephyrs".

That inexhaustive flow continual round,"

conduct you in safety through "fancy's rapid flight”—

"From the glad orient to the still loved west,"

and your own, endeared, English fireside. There, amidst its cherished associations, and the dear objects of your affections, may a place be found and reserved for your absent but

Affectionate Son,

C.

INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.

1.

Frontispiece.-Fig. 1. A lower roomed House. Fig. 2. Interior of Hall of ditto.

2. Dedicatory page. Border of Indian white flowers.

(Used by Hindoos upon occasions of their shråds-yearly ceremonies performed by them in honour or remembrance of the dead.)

1. Hursingar. Sueli. Sephalica, or weeping Nyctanthes. Nyctanthes Arbor tristis. L.

9.

Bél or Béla. Double-flowered Arabian Jasmine. Jasminum sambac. ẞ duplex. 10. Motee Bél, or Bura-bél. Great double Arabian or Tuscan Jasmine. Jasminum sambac. 11. Koopoor, or Kooroopee. Nerium odorum.

Y plenum.

4. Tail piece to ditto. An Oriental Siyahee [or Kulum] -dan-or Pen and Ink Case.

5. Preface to Second Edition. Border. The Shukurkund or sweet Potatoe. Convolvulus batatas. 6. Name Plate. 1. The Kuddoo or Pumpkin. Cucurbita lagenaria. 2. The Rut-aloo or Yam. Dioscorea sativa. Creeping plants. 3. The Bygun, or Egg plant.

7. Heading. View of Colvin's Ghât, one of the landing places of Calcutta, 8. Tail piece-The paper Nautilus. Argonauta Argo,

3

14. A European Bungalow at Barrackpore,...

222

19. Door of an Indian house, 20. Indian Mat, made from the Madoor Kâtee grass, showing the size, and texture of the

12