248 NOTES ON THE BOTANY 
human perseverance has penetrated, the same officer per- 
forming the enterprize, plants have never failed. But the 
object of the present voyage was not solely to prosecute in- : 
vestigations in the extreme South Polar Regions. Magnetic — - 
observations had to be taken, and astronomical instruments - 
fixed, in various localities in the temperate and even tropical 
portions of our globe, and various islands and continents have 
thus been visited where Flora is arrayed in a great diversity 
of forms, and where the naturalists of the ships could not 
fail to carry on their pursuits with pleasure and advantage. 
It is, nevertheless, in those islands of the southern hemi- 
sphere, which encircle the South Pole, at various and gene- 
rally very remote distances, of which the Straits of Magelhaens 
and Kerguelen's Island may be considered the northern limit, 
that the productions, though comparatively few, are the most 
remarkable, and from their isolated position, and geographical 
distribution may be studied with such advantages as no other 
parts of the world can offer. And, happily, we know that 
this important branch of Natural History has particularly 
engaged the attention of the officers of the “ Erebus and 
"Terror," and the results cannot fail to be important to that 
branch of science in which Humboldt has led the way. | 
It is not our object, or wish, on the present occasion, tO- 
notice, in a detailed manner, any of the botanical novelties 
discovered in this voyage; but rather to satisfy the public 
mind, that in a department of Natural History, which could 
only hold a secondary place in the great undertaking, mu 
may be expected to appear, of high interest, when 
voyage shall have been completed. 
The following observations are wholly derived from the. 
information given by my son, Dr. J. D. Hooker, Assistant 
Surgeon in H.M.S. * Erebus," the officer on whom the bot 
nical researches expressly devolved. It is not fora parent to 
say how well he has performed that task: but it were 1? 
justice to withhold the fact, that but for the friendly "t 
afforded by the other officers of the expedition, and by Capt. : 
Ross in particular, the botanical collections, the cop!o" 
drawings made from recent specimens, and the knowledge 
