SUPPLEMENT, 



By a reference to the first page of this work, it will now be seen that we have described, 

 as far as lay in our power, the species of the various collections made during the voyage 

 of H.M.S. Blossom, with the exception of those of Rio Janeiro. This was the first and it 

 was the last place visited by the Naturalists. But the collection is so small, the speci- 

 mens in such very wretched condition, and those few plants which can be determined so 

 well known, that we think it unnecessary to enumerate them. We believe we shall 

 further the cause of science much more by occupying the remaining pages of our work 

 with a Supplement to the C-alijornian Collection, which we are enabled to do from that 

 made, chiefly at Monterry^and San Francisco, (at no great distance from the coast,) by 

 the unfortunate Douglas, as narrated in the Companion to the Botanical Magazine, vol. 2. 

 p. 79, &c. ; and from another, very recently sent to us by Mr Tolmie, from the "Snake 

 Country," in the interior of California. This is a name given to the vast extent of 

 Prairie through which Lewis' branch, or the Snake River, holds its course. Fort Hall is 

 situated at the confluence of Blackfoot with Snake River, near Blackfoot Hill, in N. lat. 

 42° 30', W. long. 114°. Snake Fort is built at the junction of Reed's River with the 

 Snake, the position of which is in N. lat. 44° 20', long. 116° W. The specimens, in 

 beautiful preservation, were gathered, in the summer of 1837, by a friend of Mr Tolmie, 

 who conducted a party from Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia, to the rendezvous of the 

 Ametican Trappers, in the interior of California. Some few of the specimens are from 

 the " Green River ;" for the meeting of the Beaver Trappers, who, to the number of 508 

 or 600, are scattered through the Rocky Mountains and adjacent country, was held in 

 that year in the valley of the " Green River," a stream which is considered to be probably 

 the main branch of the Rio Colorado, and which empties itself into the Gulf of California. 

 There is not, perhaps, in the whole of North America, a district more interesting to the 

 Botanist than that from which these plants are derived; situated near the western foot of 

 the Rocky Mountains, at an immense distance from the coast, and at a great elevation, as 

 may be inferred from the fact of its being near the sources of two great rivers, the one 

 having its course to the north (into the Columbia), the other to the south (into the 

 Gulf of California) ; and whose respective windings seem to circumscribe the whole of 

 New California, except that portion of it which is washed by the Pacific Ocean. If other 

 gentlemen attached to the hunting expeditions of the Hudson's Bay and American Com- 

 panies would thus occupy a portion of their leisure time, we should soon be as well 

 acquainted with the vegetation of the interior of this vast continent as we now are with 

 that of its coasts. 



