486 MEMOIR OF CHAMISSO. 
afforded a happy augury in the Centaurea nigrescens, a 
species new to the English Flora. Their stay was short at 
Teneriffe, and the autumnal season and rainy weather pre- 
vented his finding many plants; but at St. Catherine’s, on 
the Brazilian coast, the riches of tropical vegetation made a 
most powerful impression on his mind, and he collected 
largely, in spite of such a series of wet days as injured his 
‘specimens, curtailed his excursions and partially destroyed 
the paper in which his plants were deposited. 
Nothing can be more adverse to a Botanist than the ex- 
tremes of weather which Chamisso experienced. Whereas 
the rainy season had prevailed in Brazil, the hot sun had 
scorched up all vegetation in Chili, which he reached in 
February 1816. Landing on Kamtschatka in June, the 
early spring flowers were just unfolded, and here he received 
the welcome addition to his stores of two chests of plants, 
which the unfortunate Redowski had collected and left 
behind; and though no particular stations were assigned to 
the several specimens, yet they were valuable as contributing 
to show the productions of these countries. 
The coasts and islands of the seas which divide America 
and Asia, afforded a rich harvest and recalled to the mind of 
Chamisso those alpine meadows in Switzerland where he 
had formerly botanized; a considerable similarity existing 
both in the forms and affinities of their vegetable produc- 
tions. No part of his collection was richer than this. The 
sandy shores of California, hitherto hardly known to. Bota- 
nists, wore their autumnal garb and exhibited many of the 
plants which have since been introduced to our gardens by 
Douglas, &c. Chamisso gathered largely in the Sandwich 
Islands and the interior of O-Waihi; though the difficulty 
of conveying and preserving specimens during the rainy 
season prevented his collections being so perfect as in the 
more northern districts. The meagre Flora of the Radack 
group was quite completed during their longer stay, and a 
second visit to the north, especially to Unalaschka, pro- 
duced valuable additions to the former stores. Guajan and 
