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SOME NEW BOOKS 
WELWITSCH’S AFRICAN PLANTS 
CATALOGUE OF THE AFRICAN PLANTS collected by Dr Friedrich Welwitsch in 1853-61, 
Dicotyledons, Part II., Combretaceae to Rubiaceae. By W. P. Hiern, British 
Museum (Natural History). 8vo, pp. 337-510. London: Printed by order of the 
Trustees. 1898. Price, 4s. 
THE number of those who have braved the dangers and discomforts 
attendant upon botanical journeys in distant countries is continually 
on the increase. Such men, to cite only a few names, as Robert 
Brown, Von Martins, Spruce, Weddell, Hooker, Beccari, have highly 
distinguished themselves by honourable labour in this department of 
science, and their services have been gratefully recognised by the 
world at large. But among them all, none is more worthy of 
recognition than Dr Friedrich Welwitsch, who, for eight years, ex- 
plored the at that time all but unknown Portuguese possessions in the 
south west of Africa. Welwitsch’s great merit resides in the thorough- 
ness with which he set himself to perform his allotted task. It is one 
thing to pass rapidly through a country, plucking specimens when 
opportunity offers, as a member of an expedition protected by all the 
resources of civilisation against the many unpleasantnesses which 
would otherwise have to be encountered. Very different must it be 
when the solitary traveller has to rely upon his own devices ; when 
year by year he struggles on against the scorching heat of the tropics, 
against the swarming insect life, whose only object seems to be the 
reduction of man to the lowest ebb of wretchedness, against the vicis- 
situdes. of the seasons with the inevitable diseases lurking in their 
train, against the ever-present danger from noxious animals and still 
more noxious members of the human race. All this Dr Welwitsch 
did, and the result is seen in the truly splendid additions to our know- 
ledge of the tropical African flora which we owe to his instrumentality. 
No one could possibly have turned his opportunities to better account ; 
and when we search the record of achievement in this branch of know- 
ledge, we fail to remember one explorer who, in the matter of scrupu- 
lous care in the selection of his specimens, and ungrudging toil and 
sagacity in the writing of the notes to accompany them, can be men- 
tioned as Welwitsch’s equal. 
Unfortunately the great explorer died before he was able to give to 
the world the full result of his unparalleled efforts ; but a fine set of the 
plants, equal to all intents and purposes to the first set now at Lisbon, 
was happily secured by the Trustees of the British Museum. Owing 
to pressure of work, these plants for some years remained undescribed; 
meanwhile sets of inferior value were distributed from Lisbon to vari- 
ous herbaria, and by these means descriptions of Welwitsch’s novelties 
have exercised the pens of various botanists from time to time. But 
desultory work of this kind, however useful it may be, is scarcely a 
worthy way of dealing with the subject; it is therefore a matter for 
