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SOME NEW BOOKS 



Welwitsch's Afkican Plants 



Catalogue of the African Plants collected by Dr Friedrich Welwitsch in 1853-61. 

 Dicotyledons, Part II., Combretaceae to Rubiaceae. By W. P. Hiern, British 

 Museum (Natural History). 8vo, pp. 337-510. London : Printed by order of the 

 Trustees. 1898. Price, 4s. 



The number of those who have braved the dangers and discomforts 

 attendant upon botanical journeys in distant countries is continually 

 on the increase. Such men, to cite only a few names, as Eobert 

 Brown, Von Martins, Spruce, Weddell, Hooker, Beccari, have highly 

 distinguished themselves by honourable labour in this department of 

 science, and their services have been gratefully recognised by the 

 world at large. But among them all, none is more worthy of 

 recognition than Dr Friedrich Welwitsch, who, for eight years, ex- 

 plored the at that time all but unknown Portuguese possessions in the 

 south west of Africa. Welwitsch's great merit resides in the thorough- 

 ness with which he set himself to perform his allotted task. It is one 

 thing to pass rapidly through a country, plucking specimens when 

 opportunity offers, as a member of an expedition protected by all the 

 resources of civilisation against the many unpleasantnesses which 

 would otherwise have to be encountered. Very different must it be 

 when the solitary traveller has to rely upon his own devices ; when 

 year by year he struggles on against the scorching heat of the tropics, 

 against the swarming insect life, whose only object seems to be the 

 reduction of man to the lowest ebb of wretchedness, against the vicis- 

 situdes of the seasons with the inevitable diseases lurking in their 

 train, against the ever-present danger from noxious animals and still 

 more noxious members of the human race. All this Dr Welwitsch 

 did, and the result is seen in the truly splendid additions to our know- 

 ledge of the tropical African flora which we owe to his instrumentality. 

 No one could possibly have turned his opportunities to better account ; 

 and when we search the record of achievement in this branch of know- 

 ledge, we fail to remember one explorer who, in the matter of scrupu- 

 lous care in the selection of his specimens, and ungrudging toil and 

 sagacity in the writing of the notes to accompany them, can be men- 

 tioned as Welwitsch's equal. 



Unfortunately the great explorer died before he was able to give to 

 the world the full result of his unparalleled efforts ; but a fine set of the 

 plants, equal to all intents and purposes to the first set now at Lisbon, 

 was happily secured by the Trustees of the British Museum. Owing 

 to pressure of work, these plants for some years remained undescribed; 

 meanwhile sets of inferior value were distributed from Lisbon to vari- 

 ous herbaria, and by these means descriptions of Welwitsch's novelties 

 have exercised the pens of various botanists from time to time. But 

 desultory work of this kind, however useful it may be, is scarcely a 

 worthy way of dealing with the subject : it is therefore a matter for 



