126 NOTES OF A BOTANICAL TOUR 
their collection which are not included in mine ; while Flores 
afforded a large proportion of my species which are absent 
from their parcel sent to Sir W. J. Hooker. 
It might be expected by a home botanist, or one who - 
lived on shore while herborizing, that with only three hun: 
dred and fifty species, I ought to have brought away a very 
large supply of duplicates. Yet this is not the case; for I 
do not estimate my specimens altogether at more than four 
thousand, including the smaller Cryptogamous plants, of 
which, indeed, I possess very few species. On making 
this estimate of the specimens, when they arrived in England, | 
I was certainly much disappointed at their paucity. 1 shad | | 
collected, from the last week in May up to the first weekin — 
September; and had I been living on shore, instead of being — 
on board a ship, it is probable that the specimens dried — 
would have been six times as many. But, as hints for the — 
benefit of other botanists likely to be so impeded, I may _ 
here mention the three circumstances which materially less- — 
ened the expected results of my exertions. In the fir — 
place, the plants dried very slowly, and when their pape — 
was changed there was great difficulty in getting the damp 
paper made fit for use again. To have scattered the sheets — 
loose about the deck, would have been a great breach of the zt 
neatness and etiquette of a man-of-war; and though I did al 
frequently bring them on deck tied in bundles, the proce — 
of desiccation was extremely slow in this condition. Th | 
only place in which I could keep loose papers was my sleep- — — 
ing cabin ; and it will easily be conceived that a space of six d 
feet square, which was occupied already by a bed, chest d 
drawers, wash-stand, table, chair, and botanical presses, 
could afford no * drying ground" for loose papers. Secondly, | 
ay opportunities for collecting were very uncertain. Some | 
times, when all my paper was already damp, I could have gotan 
ample supply of specimens ; and at other times, when I hae 
paper dry and ready, a week might elapse without having the 
opportunity of setting foot on shore. This I had hoped 
would not have been the case; but it was so; and the olf 
cumstance was even more provoking, because, in every other 
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