BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 625 
warmth, and an equal portion rubbed on the planta pedis, 
when this part is affected with the chiga, (Pulex penetrans) 
instantaneously kills these tormenting insects. If I am not 
greatly mistaken, the tree is of high importance, its oil being 
a medium in which caoutchouc may be dissolved. 
l wish my plants may please you, and while 1 use my 
utmost efforts to satisfy you in this respect, I beg that you 
Wil take the trouble to let me know, as much as possible, 
their names ; not merely that I may fix them on my memory, 
but because it is tedious work merely to collect specimens, 
without the possibility of studying them. 
This letter was written nearly a year ago, but was acci- 
dentally omitted, when the plants were sent.” 
Nothing daunted by the perils and sickness which attended 
Dr. Hostmann in his previous journeyings to the interior, we 
learn from a subsequent letter, dated, indeed, so late as July, 
1842, but which was brought by the same vessel as the 
preceding, that he is preparing for another tour. 
“The next excursion I shall make,” he says, “will be to 
the region of the Surinam river; I am already furnished by 
the Government with the necessary recommendations to the 
postholders residing in these quarters, and, by the assistance 
of the Bush Negroes, who inhabit the mountainous parts, 
I shall try to ascertain the sources of the river. Then, turn- 
ing to the east, I shall traverse on foot, the space between 
this and the river Marowini (Tapanoni), an immense moun- 
tain forest, in which we shall be obliged to continue for at 
least ten days, till we arrive at the borders of the last river, 
which likewise, is inhabited by a tribe of Bush Negroes. A 
Part of the dry season I shall spend on the banks of the 
frontier river, which I could only see when inundated, and 
then I trust to gather those plants which grow on the rocks, 
and which, for a considerable part of the year are under 
water. Returning from this expedition, I shall have to pass 
the Wana-Creek in a different season, and am sure to find 
Plants different from those I have remitted from that part 
of the colony. 
3A 2 
