BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 151 
Asia Minor, Armenia and Georgia, as far as the summits of 
the Caucasian range, part of Persia, reaching to the Salt 
Deserts and the frontier of Beloochistan, and finally Muscat 
and Arabia Petreea, to the Isthmus of Suez; excluding the 
Hedjas and Yémen, which are the subject of a separate 
publication, already begun by M. Decaisne. 
For a very long period of time, that attraction which the 
East has proved to the inhabitants of Europe, has been felt 
by botanical travellers, and the following list will convey 
Some idea of the materials they have amassed for us :—pre- 
mising that the French nation having taken the largest share 
of these labours, I have felt a peculiar delight in the patriotic 
work of pursuing such a creditable employment. 
A Frenchman heads the honourable series, Peter Belon, 
a native of Mans, about the year 1546. 
. Between 1573 and 1575, Rauwolf, of Augsburg, ex- 
plored Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia ; his narrative was 
published in 1583, but the systematic catalogue of his plants 
not till 1755, by Gronovius, at Leyden. 
In 1615, Bachelier brought the Horse-Chestnut Tree to 
France from the Levant. 
Our immortal Tournefort, one of the greatest reformers 
of Botany, and an accomplished model for travellers, in- 
vestigated, by order of Louis XIV, Georgia, Armenia, and 
the north of Asia Minor, in 1700. 
Sherard, the English Consul at Smyrna, [in 1702, so- 
. journed there a long time, making many excursions into 
the adjoining provinces. 
In 1728, Buxbaum published the result of his journeys 
in css and several other countries of the Levant. 
In 1738, appeared the work of Shaw, a botanist and 
= Mni, Guilandin is of the same period. 
In 1749, Hasselquist, a pupil of Linnæus, studied the 
environs of Smyrna, Palestine and Syria. 
| , About 1761, Forskal, the companion of Niebuhr in — 
» touched at Constantinople and Smyrna. ty 
