PREFACE TO THE READER.

This all the more ignited his zeal, and added to his courage in looking about to see whether, by more and better means than this aforementioned Father Father Matthew of St. Joseph, a Carmelite missionary and skilled botanical illustrator could provide, he might produce a more concise and perfect description of the plants of this place. To better serve the benefit he intended, he saw that the illustrations themselves could be perfected, since most skilled painters were at hand who could depict the plants most exactly and from life. Regarding their medicinal powers, he also saw these could be increased, provided that the most experienced Malabar Doctors referring to practitioners of Ayurveda and local traditional medicine in the Malabar region of India—moved especially by the great respect this Noble Lord holds among the Malabar people and their Kings and Princes—would most willingly offer their labor to communicate all they knew about them. Only one difficulty remained: that the plants be described exactly, so that an even greater perfection might be achieved, which not only we, but even the Reverend Father himself judged necessary.

As for me, seeing the upright and laudable purpose of this Noble Lord, and with what ardor and spirit he desired to see this work perfected—both for the public good and especially to be of use to the affairs of the most powerful Company of the Indies The Dutch East India Company (VOC)—and understanding at the same time how much this Noble Lord was hindered and distracted by great business in military and political government from setting his own hand to the work; and because the Reverend Father MATTHEW was, as he himself confessed, extremely detained by ecclesiastical occupations and could no longer satisfy the Noble Lord’s purpose as he might have wished; I found myself stirred to bring whatever help was in my power so that the Noble Lord’s purpose might be realized. I offered my mind to him for this task, though not without a preceding protestation of my weak faculties and the fact that I had not previously been practiced in the knowledge of plants. For this reason, it pleased the Noble Lord that I should accomplish what I could. He employed those who would bring all the plants to me anew, just as the Reverend Father MATTHEW, wishing to see the Noble Lord’s upright purpose fulfilled and rejoicing in the common good, most willingly and with a ready mind delivered all his own materials into my hands, so that I might insert into our work what he had written concerning the medicinal powers of the plants.

Therefore, concerning this description: in it is expressed the form and appearance of each plant and its principal parts, such as the Root, Trunk or Stem, Leaves, Flowers, Fruit, and Seeds, as well as the properties of their color. Furthermore, the names are set down in the Malabar Malayalam and Brahman Konkani or Sanskrit languages with their unique notation. We also took care to describe all the known species of plants we could obtain, together with their differences, so that we might prevent all confusion that can very easily arise between species when identifying plants. As for the illustrations, the plants are drawn in their natural size with their principal parts—Flowers, Fruits, and Seeds—and expressed from life. This was done so exactly that I do not doubt our description, though perhaps not absolute in every detail, will be sufficient when compared with them to acquire a clear and distinct knowledge of these plants. Regarding the medicinal uses, we have selected them partly from the findings of the Reverend Father JOHN MATTHEW the Carmelite, and partly from the mouths of the most skilled Doctors, namely RANGA BOTTO, VINAIQUE PANDITO, and APU BOTTO, who are Brahmans, and ITTI ACHUDEM, a man of the Chegum Ezhavas, a community known for their knowledge of medicinal plants lineage, as is evident from their own testimonies. To these are added the powers of certain oils extracted by us; and in this manner, we have adorned the first part of this Malabar Garden original: "Hortus Malabaricus".