164 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
barked for Europe, in July, 1842. Their journey would 
have stretched much farther north, were it not for the jea- 
lousy of a body of Dutch emigrants who had just settled in 
that country where they wished to pass, and who, suspecting 
our travellers to be spies, most obstinately prevented their 
proceeding further. We can speak to the great value of the 
botanical collection, which Lord Derby has generously placed 
at our disposal. It is remarkably well preserved, and con- 
tains a great deal of novelty and some highly remarkable 
forms. Amongst them is a new Menodora, a genus hi- 
therto supposed to be peculiar to South America, and a very 
singular plant, allied to Anacampseros, but with the stipules 
quite entire, and so large and concave, white and membra- 
nous, and so closely imbricated, that the plant looks more 
like some gigantic-leaved Sphagnum, than any pheenoga- 
mous production. The singular Stapelia Gordoni was found 
in plenty. This was previously only known to European 
botanists by the extraordinary figure in “ Masson’s Stapelie ;” 
so extraordinary, indeed, that our stapelia-growers used to 
speak of it as a fiction; but the representation is most faith- 
ful and accurate. One of the Fungi is so peculiar, that the 
Rev. Mr. Berkeley has pronounced it to be a new genus, and 
a figure and description of it will appear in an early number 
of this Journal.* | 
It is our intention here, however, to enter no farther into x 
the particulars of this valuable collection, than is necessary . 
for showing that by this important and expensive expedition, 
Lord Derby has rendered an essential service to botany 95. : * 
well as to zoology; and we trust to have the opportunity, Pad 
ere long, of making known many of the novelties, through 
the medium of this Journal. B 
Our object, in the present instance, is to state that Mr. 
Burke having left M. Zeyher at Cape-Town, it is the inten- 
tion of the latter, for several years, to devote his attention, — 
as zealously as ever, to collecting the seeds, roots and spec — 
mens of South African plants. He has already commenced ^ 
* See our Tabs, VI & VII. 
