FLORA OF MADAGASCAR. 247 
east of the island. Mr. Langley Kitching, Dr. Parker, and Mr. 
Cowan have discovered a considerable number of novelties in the 
Imerina and Betsileo provinces, and I myself have sent to Kew 
several cases of plants collected in various parts of the island. 
The greater number of the plants gathered by these various col- 
lectors in different localities have been examined by Mr. J. G. 
Baker, F.R.S., of Kew, and the novelties have been described by 
him in the Linnean Society’s ‘Journal’ and the ‘Journal of 
Botany. Mr. Ridley has, however, described the new orchids 
and a few other plants. The French collections have been chiefly 
taken in hand by M. Baillon, and the German collections by 
Vatke, Freyn, Buchenau, Kérnicke, Radlkofer, O. Hoffmann, and 
others. 
Botanizing in Madagascar, as those who have travelled in wild 
and uncivilized regions in other parts of the world will easily 
believe, is a totally different experience from botanizing in Eng- 
land. Your collecting materials are carried by a native, who may 
be honest or not, iu which latter case the drying paper will begin 
gradually and mysteriously to disappear, and the leather straps 
with which the presses are tightened will, one by one, be quietly 
appropriated. For a Malagasy bearer has a special weakness 
for leather straps, they being largely used for belts; so that 
both for the sake of your own comfort and the honesty of the 
men, the sooner you dispense with them the better. As for the 
dried plants themselves, they are secure from all pilfering ; for of 
what possible use or value they can be, it puzzles the natives to 
conceive. You might leave your collection in a village for a 
Whole month, and you would find on your return that it was still 
intact. If, after the day's journey, you sit down in a hut to change 
the sheets of paper containing the specimens, the villagers will 
be sure to come in and, standing round in a circle, gaze at you 
in mute astonishment turning over the plants so well known to 
them. After a few minutes’ silent gaze, there will perhaps be a 
sudden outburst of amused laughter, or it may bea little whis- 
pering, which, if it were audible, would be something to this 
effect :—“ Whatever in the world is the man doing?” or, “ What 
strange creatures these white men are!" Some of the people 
doubtless think that you are a kind of sorcerer. For these dried 
plants—whatever can you do with them ? You cannot eat them. 
You cannot make them into broth. You cannot plant them, for 
they are dead. You cannot form them into bouquets or wreaths, 
