THE 
LONDON JOURNAL OF BOTANY. 
EDITED BY 
SIR W. J. HOOKER, K.H. L.L.D. F.R.S. & L.S. 
Notes of a BorANICAL Tour in the WESTERN AZORES. 
(In a Letter from Hewett C. WATsoN, Esq., to the Editor, 
dated, November, 1842.) 
Ir was my wish to write to you from the Azores, by way 
of reporting the progress I waslikely to make in investigating 
the botanical productions of those islands, during the survey- 
ing operations of Her Majesty's War Steamer, Styx, com- 
manded by Captain Vidal; to whom I had been introduced, 
through the insttmentality of yourself and Captain Beaufort, 
as a person, willing to go out at my own cost, for that object, - 
provided an order from the Admiralty was obtained for a pas- — 
sage in the Styx. I postponed writing, until I should reach 
the island of Flores, often stated to have originally derived its 
name from the beauty or variety of its flowers ; and, by this 
postponement the intention was ultimately defeated. The 
West India mail-packets touch at Fayal on their homeward 
passage; but the island of Flores is upwards of a hundred 
miles from Fayal, with irregular and uncertain opportunities - 
of communication, and before our return to Fayal, I had re- 
solved to take a passage myself in the first mail-steamer to 
Englandthatshould touch thereafter we returned to that island. - 
This resolution I was unfortunate enough to carry into effect, 
and by so doing, was subjected to the tedionsness of á rough | 
passage, protracted to twice its usual length, through sheer - 
mismanagement in taking on board the mec barely 
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