Ixvi INTRODUCTION. 
and protection of Sir Joseph Banks. At the house of this 
patron of science he met with the first naturalists of the 
age, and among others with that distinguished geologist, 
the Baron Von Buch, whose habits and feelings being con- 
genial with his own, they soon projected a voyage of scien- 
tific inquiry to the island of Madeira, and to those of the 
Canaries. 
On the 21st April, 1815, they landed at Funchal, the 
capital of Madeira. “ From that moment,” says M. Von 
Buch, “ transported with the sight of so many new ob- 
jects, Smith knew no repose ; he laid hold of the several 
species of Cactus which in the most whimsical forms cover 
the rocks, to convince himself that they were real; he 
‘leaped over the walls to examine those forests of Donax 
which the wind agitates above the vines to which they give 
support; he ran from flower to flower, as if in extacy, and 
it was with great difficulty he could be prevailed on to enter 
the town. Here again his eye was delighted in traversing 
the great square, and observing the avenue of large trees of 
Justicia, of the Mela Azedarach, and of the gigantic Da- 
tura, covered with their large and brilliant blossoms, which 
fill the air with their perfumes ; the immense leaves of the 
Banana trees waving above the walls, and the superb palm 
lifting its lofty head high above the houses; the singular 
form of the Dragon tree; the fragrance of the flowers, 
and the tufted foliage of the orange trees threw him into 
raptures. ‘he elegant coffee-shrub is found only in the 
gardens; but the pine-apple flourishes in the open fields ; 
and the Mimosa, the Eucalyptus, the Melaleuca, the Mam- 
mea, Clitorea, Erythrina, Eugenia, of which the dwarfish 
fragments only are seen in the conservatories of Europe, 
