De Gr eee) eh Ee ee Le CR LEE TTC T 
Wi AE 8 ee E AER E 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 97 
and had the misfortune to lose, in consequence, seven valuable 
animals in one night. 
JAMES DRUMMOND. 
May 15th, 1841. 
The following animated letter, from a gentleman long resi- 
dent in Surinam, and ardently devoted to the natural history 
of that rich and fertile territory, cannot fail to be read with in- 
terest. The plants to which he refers, have been consigned and 
safely received by the writer of this note. They include five hun- 
dred distinct species, (with numerous duplicates) in a very ex- 
cellent state of preservation ; many of these plants are of rarity 
to our herbaria, and not a few quite unknown to the botanical 
world. The charge of freight from Surinam to Holland, thence 
to Glasgow, and thence to London and Kew, has considerably 
advanced the cost fixed upon them by the liberal offer of Dr. 
Hostmann; but arrangements will be made with him for 
future supplies, from other parts of the colony, on very rea- 
sonable terms; so that, through the exertions of this able 
and enlightened traveller, we may hope to obtain a tolerably 
complete Flora of the Dutch settlements in Guiana. The 
specimens in the different sets are all accurately numbered, 
and a list of names and characters of the new species, will 
shortly be given in the pages of our Journal.—Ep. 
Paramaribo, Dec. 1840. 
Sır WILLIAM, 
Confident that the offer which I had made, respecting 
the collecting of Surinam plants, would be found worthy your 
attention and reasonable as to terms, I did not wait your 
reply to my letter of November last year, but proceeded to make 
a kind of preliminary excursion into the interior of this Colony. 
There was much for me to learn, regarding the preparations 
which a longer journey would demand, for I had never pro- 
secuted my researches beyond the cultivated land of this 
