92 



FLORA OF THE BRITISH POSSESSIONS IN NORTH 



AMERICA. 

 Doctor Hooker is engaged in preparing for publication the entire 

 collection of plants of British North America, which have been en- 

 trusted to him for that purpose by Captain Franklin and Dr. Rich- 

 ardson ; and he has already completed many drawings of new species 

 for the plates. This herbarium, alone, is extremely extensive, and 

 the specimens are in the finest possible preservation. It includes 

 collections made in three different portions of the country. 1. That 

 of Captain Franklin and his officers, upon the coasts of the Arctic 

 Seas, from the mouth of the Mackenzie river, westward towards 

 Behring's Straits. 2. That of Dr. Richardson, principally obtained 

 from the shores of the same sea, to the eastward of the Mackenzie river, 

 and between it and the Copper-mine river ; and comprising among 

 many other rarities, probably the whole of the species which were 

 unfortunately lost in the former expedition. And 3rdly, The portion 

 collected by Mr. Drummond, the Assistant Naturalist ; by far the 

 most extensive, as may be supposed, of the three, since his whole 

 time was devoted to forming collections, and in the most fertile part 

 of the country ; — that is to say, from the whole extent of the inland 

 route of the Expedition, through Canada and the Hudson Bay Com- 

 pany's territories ; and from that very interesting district, too, 

 which Mr. Drummond alone was charged to visit ; namely, the most 

 elevated chain of the Rocky Mountains, a part of that vast, ridge, 

 extending in an almost uninterrupted line to the Andes of South 

 America, and which no botanist had previously explored. This com- 

 bined herbarium is so extensive that it, alone, would justify the pre- 

 paration of a Flora of that vast region. But with these he has the 

 opportunity of incorporating all the previous discoveries of the same 

 travellers on the former overland expedition ; of Captain Parry, and 

 other arctic voyagers ; together with the plants of Newfoundland 

 and Labrador, gathered by Dr. Morrison, who afterwards fell a victim 

 to his courage and love of science in exploring Central Africa ; the 

 botanical productions of Canada, which have been received from the 

 Lady Dalhousie, Mrs. Percival, Mr. Sheppard, and Mr Todd, &c. ; 

 those of North West America, gathered by Mr. Menzies and Dr. 

 Scouler ; together with herbaria which will be more particularly no- 



