132 
sive district were little known to us till recent travellers visited 
it Among the first must rank Mr. Cruckshanks and Dr. 
Gillies, who have not only enriched our Herbaria with many 
new and rare species, but our green-houses with many of 
their choicest ornaments. The residence of the former 
highly intelligent naturalist for a great length of time in the 
country, and his extensive excursions to Mendoza in one 
direction, and to Lima and Pasco in Peru* in another, have 
been productive of results highly favourable to science. 
Mr. Cuming collected in various departments of natural 
history, and with a zeal that reflects great credit upon him. 
From Chiloe in the soutb, and along the coast at Maule Pro- 
vince, at Conception, Valparaiso, and to Coquimbo in the north, 
and from the coast inland to the Cumbre, an elevated pass in 
the Cordilleras, he has omitted no opportunity of gathering 
the best specimens of such plants as the season afforded. In 
many places he was greatly benefited by the friendly advice 
and the still more valuable assistance of Alexander Cald- 
cleugh, Esq. to whose exertions, in various ways, natural his- 
tory is much indebted. 
'The numbers between hooks, which follow the names of 
. Mr. Cuming and Mr. Mathews, are those with which we 
have received their specimens, and under which they have 
been sent to others. But we must observe, that we cannot 
be answerable for every individual plant having been trans- 
mitted with precisely the same number; mistakes will occur, 
and a label is liable to be displaced, sometimes by the sender; 
sometimes by the receiver, and in both cases accidentally; 
while the consequence is, that the names will not always be 
found to correspond with the species so numbered. In regard 
to Mr. Cuming's plants, the greatest care, however, has 
been taken to distribute them correctly with the collections of 
the following botanists, and for which one of us (Dr. Hooker) 
is himself, in a great measure, responsible: namely, those of 
Mr. Brown, Mr. Bentham, Professor Lindley, Dr. Graham, 
* See the interesting and instructive Journey to Pasco of Mr. Cruckshenke, 
published in the 2d volume of this Miscellany, P 168. 
