14 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



enumerations muft be extremely defedllve, if it is 

 confidered, as has been remarked by this lad Ob- 

 ferver himfelf, that we know little or nothing of 

 the interior of Africa ; of that of the three Ara- 

 biaSj and even of the two Americas ; very little of 

 New Guinea, New Holland and Zealand, and of 

 the innumerable iflands of the South Sea, the 

 greateft part of which are themfelves ftill undifco- 

 vered. We know hardly any thing of the Ille of 

 Ceylon, except a little of the coafl; of the great 

 ifland of Madagafcar ; of the immenfe archipela- 

 gos of the Philippines and Moluccas, and of al- 

 moft all the Afiatic iflands. As to that vaft Con- 

 tinent, with the exception of fome great roads in 

 the interior, and fome parts of the coaft relbrted 

 to by the trafEck of Europe, we may affirm that 

 it is wholly unknown to us. 



How many immenfe diftrids are there in Tar- 

 tary, in Siberia, and even in many of the king- 

 doms of Europe, where the foot of Botanift never 

 trod ! Some, indeed, have given us a herbal of 

 Malabar, Japan, China, &c. but if we refleâ:, that, 

 in thefe countries, their refearches never penetrated 

 beyond the fea-coaft, and were generally confined 

 to one feafon of the year, when a part only of the - 

 plants, peculiar to each climate, appear j that they 

 have vifited only the narrow regions adjoining to 

 our European fadories ; that they have never dared 



to 



