BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 205 



mend with us all. This morning was particularly chilly, the 

 thermometer down to 60° at dawn, so that I shiver when I 

 write at such a change from what I have been accustomed to 

 for three years, when the thermometer has continually ranged 

 from 80" to 90^ and upwards. I have been informed to-day 

 of the death of St Hilaire, who is still well remembered by 

 many people here. A newspaper from England would be a 

 great treat to me, but I must still have patience. 



G. Gardner. 



[While tlio above letter was in print, we are gratified by the receipt of 

 the following, which is the more welcome to Mr Gardner's friends and to 

 his family, as coming at a time when reports were in circulation of his 

 having come to an untimely end, (previous to its date,) owing to the fury of 

 the populace in the disturbed district through which he was passing. The 

 letter alludes to circumstances indeed of a private nature, yet I have been 

 unwilling to withhold them from those readers who have felt an interest in 

 this meritorious naturalist ; for the manner in which he mentions them is 

 alike creditable to his head and heart.] 



MoRRo Velho Gold Mines, near Sahara, 

 Province of Minas Geraes, Sept. 2d, 1840. 

 My Dear Sir, — I hasten to inform yon of my safe arrival 

 here on the 29th of last month, and of my having found 

 waiting my coming all the letters which have been sent to 

 me from England, since the last parcel which reached me at 

 Crato, and among these I have to acknowledge the receipt 

 of eight from you, viz., 18th Feb., 1838, and 22d Oct. of 

 same year; 2d Jan., 20th June, and 27th June of 1839 ; and 

 also 29th Dec. of same year, 6th Feb., and 10th April of 

 1840. These, as you may well imagine, I cannot at present 

 answer seriatim, this being more intended as an acknow- 

 ledgment of having received them than any thing else. The 

 melancholy accounts, of which several of them are the bearers, 

 have affected me not a little — knowing the bad state of health 

 under which my mother has laboured for a long series of years, 

 I counted as almost certain upon news of her death — and al- 

 though happily disappointed, the intelligence of the decease 



