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About The Book: The greater number of the Tracts which constitute this volume, were written during the earlier part of a residence of about twenty years in India: some of them have been published, but without my knowledge, and without receiving the necessary correction; others, which had been laid before the Government of Fort St. George and forwarded to the Honourable the Court of Directors, were deposited in their library; the rest, as some journals, letters, and translations, had been communicated to private friends only: none were thought by me of sufficient importance to lay before the world. Owing to circumstances, which it is immaterial to state, I have riot been able to arrange the Tracts either according to the succession in which they were written, or to the connexion of their subjects. About The Author: Benjamin Heyne FLS (1770-1819) was a German botanist, naturalist, and surgeon who worked in British India as a Botanist to Samalkot in the Madras Presidency under the British East India Company. He collected and described plants from southern India, many of which were named after him by European botanists. The son of German classical scholar and archaeologist Christian Gottlob Heyne and Therese Weiss, daughter of German composer and lutenist Sylvius Leopold Weiss, Benjamin Heyne was born in Dobra, Germany. In later life, Heyne joined the Tranquebar Mission run by Moravians where he took an interest in the botanical gardens. Through William Roxburgh he obtained a position in the Madras Presidency as a botanist at Samalkot around 1794. He was involved in introducing new food plants to overcome famines and these included potatoes and breadfruit. After the fall of Tipu Sultan, he was appointed to look for a new site for a botanical garden in Mysore and he chose Lalbagh. He moved many specimens from Samalkot to Lalbagh. He was formally titled "Naturalist and Botanist" in 1802.