98 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
district, and I even feared that I might find it impracticable 
to supply plants at the rate I had originally proposed. 
Perhaps you will consider me imprudent for thus embarking 
in an enterprize of uncertain result, before receiving your 
reply ; especially as I am far from independent, and the care 
of others devolves upon me. Still, so entirely had I famili- 
arized my mind to the idea of spending the remainder of my 
life in the service of natural history and specially of botany; 
that I finally relinquished my profession (of medicine) nearly 
a year ago, in order to devote myself wholly to the pursuit 
of science. 
Having never passed the boundaries of cultivated portions 
of the colony, I was very ignorant as to the best means of pe- 
netrating its more interesting interior. I, therefore, directed 
my course towards our southernmost limits, and at the dis- 
tance of about thirty German miles, on the banks of the 
small Mapanna, falling into the Tempati river, I found a soil 
of considerable elevation, of which the parts nearest the 
river (though they had been cultivated a hundred years ago); 
were densely overgrown with a forest, differing but little from 
the native bush. To the back, a quarter of an hour distant, 
the ground, gently rising, bore all the character of a giganti 
and highly diversified vegetation. I ought to premise that I 
commenced this excursion at the beginning of the rainy sea- 
son, and my reasons for thus departing from the general 
practice of travellers in tropical countries, were these :— It 
has often occurred to me, while perusing the narratives of 
other collectors, that there were numerous advantages to be 
derived from braving the many disagreeables which certainly 
attach to investigating at this period of the year, of such 
countries as Surinam. I allude, particularly, to Dr. Schom- 
burgk, who recently explored British Guiana, and Mr. Gard- 
ner, who travelled in the Brazils. Both these naturalists 
complain of having been materially hindered by the heavy 
falls of rain. I am well aware that the difficulties thus pre 
sented, are of no light description; especially in all these 
countries, which are either thinly inhabited or wholly uninha- 
