102 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
that I saw charmed me more than a Lecythis, whose crimson 
flowers were peculiarly fascinating; but it is idle to enume- 
rate where all alike was beautiful and new. 
On my return from this expedition, I received your letter. 
I had now gained some knowledge of the process of collecting 
in this country, and my conclusion was, that nobody can pos- 
sibly furnish the plants of Surinam at the price for which I 
had offered them ; unless, indeed, your remarks proceed from 
a mistake of the terms, or except the individual be possessed 
of such independent means, as to relinquish any idea of 
compensation. And that this is not the case with me, I need 
not be ashamed to say, for having given up my professional 
pursuits for the sake of botany, I am compelled to look for a 
subsistence to the collecting of plants. 
l approve, however, very much of the caution you have 
used to guard against error on my side, and disappointment 
on that of those for whom I may collect; and in reference to 
this subject, I would only add the following remarks, which 
I offer with submission to your better judgment. 
There is no danger that I should “ only collect the plants 
of the cultivated portions of this colony," these being com- 
paratively very few in number. Not that I can bind myself 
to send * solely such productions as are the exclusive growth 
of Surinam ;" for while 1 would engage to furnish all the in- 
digenous Plants of Dutch Guiana indiscriminately, I am well 
aware that many of the productions of this country do occur, 
on the one hand, so far south as Rio J aneiro, and on the 
other, so much to the north, as the banks of the Oronokka. 
lam not botanist enough to know with certainty the exact 
geographical limits of all plants, and should think it hard, if 
my specimens should occasionally chance to be in this predi- 
cament, that my subscribers should therefore refuse to accept 
them. Again, I must remark that the epithets of * rare and 
common” are extremely vague. For instance, Mora excelsa, 
a tree till lately unknown, and Pleurothallis aristata, one © 
the Orchidee, but recently described by you, the Eriocaulonee 
and their relations, are amongst the very commonest products 
