<■; 
FLORA 
OF 
NORTH-WESTERN MEXICO. 
HISTOEICAL NOTICE. 
Numerous are the names of those who, since the days of Cortez, have made the vegetation 
of Mexico their study, and great the materials which, by their respective labours, have been 
accumulated. Still the exploration of the country, in a botanical point of view, is far from 
being accomplished, and an enumeration of all the members of its Flora, or even a synopsis 
of all that has hitherto been done in that direction, remains one of the desiderata of science. 
With the exception of Italy, Greece, and Portugal, all civilized countries have sent explorers 
hither. At first it was Spain exclusively which supplied them, the venerable Hernandez being 
one of the most popular representatives of that class ; then it was Germany and France, a 
little later England, Denmark, and Russia, and finally the United States of America. 
The first Enghsh expedition was that of H.M.S. Blossom, commanded by Captain F. W. 
Beechey, R.N., accompanied by Mr. Tradescant Lay, naturalist, and Mr. Collie, surgeon, 
both of whom made considerable collections of plants, which however did not arrive in Eng- 
land in a satisfactory condition, and they were moreover mixed up with those of Loo-Choo, 
a state of thino-s which gave rise to some confusion ; nevertheless they were turned to the 
best advantage by Sir William Jackson Hooker and Dr. G. A. Walker Arnott, who published 
them in their well-known work, 'The Botany of Captain Beechey 's Voyage.'* The speci- 
mens were gathered from December, 1827, to the 8th of February, 1828, about San Bias, 
* The Botany of Captain Beechey's Voyage, comprising an Account of the Plants collected by Messrs. 
Lay and Collie, and other Officers of the Expedition, during the Voyage to the Pacific and Behring's Stniit, 
performed in H.M.S. Blossom, under the command of Captain F. W. Beechey, E.N., etc., in the years 
1825, 26, 27, and 28, by Sir W. J. Hooker, etc., and G. A. Walker Amott, Esq., etc. Illustrated by nume- 
rous plates. 4to. London, 1841.. 
^ 2 K 
