206 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
I dried, sheet by sheet, all the plants which had been wetted. i 
It was, however, the hardest day's work I ever encountered, - 2 
for I was incessantly occupied over the heated stoves, fromsix — 
o'clock in the morning, till after midnight. From having — 
been thus promptly attended to, the specimens have not suf- — 
fered nearly so much as I had feared they would do, still - 
many of them do not look so well as at first. i 
“Tam very glad that you advised me to make a journey - 
into the Province of Piauhy, and feel very confident that 
when the results of my present labours reach you, they will 
gratify you also by the number of new forms that thus will — 
be added to your herbarium. It was certainly some disap- — 
pointment to me on leaving Oeiras, that the disorganized — 
state of the country forbade my proceeding directly westward 
to the Tocantins; but I now see that it was on the whole - 
fortunate that my design was thus frustrated, as the late 
period of the season would not have allowed me to collect half 
`- the number of species I now possess. At present, my collec- 
. tion amounts to rather more than 800 species, all of which 
have been gathered in the short space of three months and 4 
few days. It also contains as many complete sets as 0y of 
my former ones, and instead of lessening the number of sets 
I have increased them to about thirty. I ought, however, t0 — 
mention, that without the active help of Mr Walker; a young 
Englishman, who has accompanied me as an assistant Wr - 
stock would not have been nearly so numerous as it is- 
** My intention at present is not to quit the Province of P 
Goyaz till the rains are nearly over, which will be about the oe 
month of March; and I have adopted this determination for — 
two reasons, because of the bad roads, and also on account — 
_ of the great difficulty of preserving specimens properly dv- r 
ring the wet season. By that time I expect to have mer? — 
"than 1000 species, and before I reach Rio, I hope to add 25. 
many more. From this place 1 mean to go to Conceisió * 
few days’ journey to the southward, and then turn directly 
east to Arrayas; and so soon as the season permits, cross the 
Serra das Araras, and gain, in a slanting direction southwards; 
