TRANSACTIONS 
оғ 
THE LINNEAN SOCIETY. 
I. The Botany of the Speke and Grant Expedition, an Enumeration of the Plants col- 
lected during the Journey of the late Captain J. H. SPEKE and Captain (now Lieut.- 
Col.) J. A. Grant from Zanzibar to Egypt., The Determinations and Descriptions 
by Professor OLIVER and others ибн 4 with the Herbariwm, Royal Gardens, 
Kew; with an Introductory Preface, Alphabetical List of Native Names, and Notes 
by Colonel GRANT, 
Read December 7th, 1871. 
INTRODUCTION. 
IN the year 1860, when I was appointed to aceompany Captain Speke to the sources of 
the Nile, it occurred to me that many а pleasant hour might be spent in collecting plants 
and seeds while traversing the country to be explored. I here confess that I did not 
then anticipate any botanical importance from such a collection. With this idea (more 
of pleasant occupation than of scientific result), before embarking at Plymouth, I pur- 
. chased some drying-paper and a couple of books for notes, all for a few shillings. When 
Captain Speke saw this bundle of paper, he thought it far too cumbrous for such a 
journey, but he readily yielded to my wish to have it. He afterwards saw with me how 
the plants were appreciated when we took them to Kew upon our return. He lived to 
see them named and entered in his * Discovery of the Source of the Nile.” Would that 
my poor friend had survived to see the present result ! 
With the above material, and having discarded a botanical case as lumber, I began 
_ eollecting at the different ports we touched at between England and Zanzibar—namely, 
at Europa Island, Delagoa Bay, Johannah Island, and Rio Janeiro. When Captain 
Speke saw my plants accumulating, he further directed that the collection should be sent 
to Kew; this gave me a fresh impetus, and made me more diligent and anxious to 
obtain new and useful information. 
The dried plants gathered up to Kazeh, in Central Africa, were entrusted to native 
porters to carry back to Zanzibar, and were sent thence to the Kew herbarium; those 
which were prepared after leaving Kazeh were carried by us across Africa to Egypt, and 
deposited at Kew. 
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