PREFACE. 93 
by him with a nearly complete set of his plants, and by this 
means have been enabled to cite his synonomy with certainty. 
Lastly, the Professor Administrators of the Museum of 
Natural History of Paris, confided to me, with their well- 
known liberality, a collection, formed probably for the Por- 
tuguese government, and brought from Lisbon in 1808 by 
M. Geoffrey St. Hilaire. This was accompanied by no 
written document by which the native country of the plants 
could be ascertained; but the identity of the very great 
majority of the species with those of the British collections 
from the Cape de Verd Islands, leaves no reasonable doubt of 
its origin. The specimens are generally satisfactory, and 
Were evidently picked up at a moment when vegetation 
Was starting into life and in its most florid state. It 
has added some highly interesting and characteristic species 
to our list. With this collection, there was brought at the 
Same time from Lisbon, another, supposed to have come 
from Brazil. The following circumstance, which might lead 
us to imagine that some confusion may have taken place 
between these two sets of plants, has been pointed out to 
me by M. Adrien de Jussieu. The genus Asteranthos, taken 
from the latter set by Desfontaines, belonging as it does to 
the Strange African Order of the XNapoleonee beautifully 
illustrated by the descriptions and drawings of this dis- 
tinguished naturalist, never having since been met with in 
America may very possibly have wandered to the Brazilian 
Set from that formed in the Cape de Verd Islands, and 
thus be in reality, what from analogy might be supposed 
à denizen, not of America, but of Africa. At any rate 
it is useful to call the attention of travellers to the existence 
of this geographical doubt, in order that it may be investi- 
8ated and cleared up. 
“He present catalogue, compiled from these several sources, 
9Wing to the causes referred to above, contains only 250 species 
9f ferns and flowering plants. Of these 204 belong to 
the Dicotyledonous orders, only 31 to Monocotyledones, and 
18 to Equisetacee and Ferns. It is probable, however, that 
