J84 Dr Hooker on a Botanical Society in Germany for 



our country, there are perhaps but few who have it in their 

 power to supply a stranger with them in a well-preserved 

 state. 



The French and the Germans far excel us in this important 

 department of a botanist's pursuits. So that by a visit to half 

 a dozen of his correspondents in those two countries the Bri- 

 tish naturalist will be enabled, through their friendly assist- 

 ance, to return with almost a complete Flora of those vast em- 

 pires. In Germany, especially, the art of preserving plants is 

 carried to a very high degree of perfection ; and the advan- 

 tage which the student derives from examining such speci- 

 mens is incalculable, almost equal to that of doing so in the 

 living state. Among many others, MM. Hoppe, Horns- 

 chuch, Funck, and Sieber, have combined a great love of bo- 

 tany with a happy tact in all that concerns the preparation and 

 drying of specimens ; and, possessing also a deep and scientific 

 knowledge of the plants themselves, these naturalists have 

 given to the world collections which excel every figure, and 

 are necessary to every student. The trifling labour attending 

 the manual operation is amply compensated by the beautiful 

 scenery into which the travelling botanist is sure to be trans- 

 ported ; by the impressions, (almost never to be effaced,) which 

 the very circumstance of his discovering and gathering such 

 and such a plant in a state of nature are sure to make upon 

 him ; and by the gratification in prospect of distributing to 

 persons of a kindred mind with himself those vegetables, from 

 the acquisition of which he has already derived so much plea- 

 sure. 



It is in Germany that the Institution has arisen of which 

 I am about to give an account ; and of which, I believe, the 

 origin is due to Professor Hochstetter and Dr Steudel of Ess- 

 lingen, both of them well known for their attachment to natu- 

 ral history, and the latter especially, by his laborious and 

 learned work the Nomenclator Botanicus. These gentlemen, 

 in conjunction with a few other German botanists, were at the 

 expence of sending out M. Fleischer, an excellent botanist and 

 apothecary of Esslingen, together with an assistant, to explore 

 the vegetable riches of the Southern Tyrol in 1825. The 

 success with which the expedition was crowned gave them the 



