Linnean Society. 413 
exertions. His activity was unceasing, and his time entirely devoted 
with the greatest ardour to a pursuit which presented him with so 
many novelties and opened to him so attractive a career. During 
his researches among the riches of this fertile region he acquired 
such a knowledge of the Portuguese language, and studied so to 
adapt himself to the habits of the people, as to enable him to carry 
into effect his original design of traversing the interior provinces 
of Northern Brazil, in quest of their botanical productions, which 
until that period had only been investigated by Pohl, Von Martius, 
A. St. Hilaire, and our countryman Dr. Burchell, and were compa- 
ratively little known to botanists in general. With this view he 
embarked at Rio de Janeiro, and reached Pernambuco in July 1837: 
he spent three months in exploring that province, visiting the Rio 
San Francisco, which he ascended as high as the falls of Pedro 
Affonco; hence he returned to Pernambuco, and proceeded by sea 
to Aracaty, from which point he penetrated inland, making very 
large collections in the provinces of Ceara and Piauhy. His inten- 
tion was to cross to the westward and explore the banks of the To- 
cantins, and ascending along tke course of that river to penetrate by 
this route as far as the city of Goyaz, and if possible to reach the 
cities of Cuyaba and Matto Grosso; but the political disturbances 
thea raging in Piauhy obliged him to alter his course in a more 
southerly direction: this had the advantage of offering a long tract 
yet untrodden by any botanist, and he accordingly traversed the 
westernmost portion of the province of Pernambuco and crossed the 
more eastern parts of that of Goyaz, examining in his way the high 
table-lands in these districts, which afforded him a rich harvest. 
Crossing then the Serra Geral, near Arrayas, he entered tke pro- 
vince of Minas Geraés, where he added greatly to his collections, 
especially among the rarities of the Diamond district, and after tra- 
versing this entire province he again reached Rio de Janeiro at the 
end of 1840. Hence he paid asecond visit to the Organ Mountains 
and the rich mountain country in the neighbourhood of the Parahyba 
River, and finally embarked with his collections for Liverpool, where 
he arrived in July 1841, having been absent five years and two 
months, during which period his collections amounted to upwards 
of 6000 species of Phanerogamous plants, consisting of fine and well- 
selected specimens, in excellent preservation. 
His many interesting letters to Sir William Hooker, written at 
various stages during his travels, were published from time to time 
in the ‘Companion to the Botanical Magazine,’ the ‘ Annals of Na- 
tural History,’ and the ‘ Journal of Botany ;’ but in 1846 he prepared 
a more popular Account of his Journey, which was published in an 
8vo volume under the title of ‘ ‘Travels in the Interior of Brazil. He 
likewise contributed, after his return to England, several botanical 
memoirs to the ‘London Journal of Botany’ on Chresta, Pycnocephala, 
Trochopteris, Bowmannia, Hockinia, and several other new genera ; and 
in 1842 he commenced an Enumeration and description of the plants 
he had collected during his travels, which he continued to publish 
from time to time in the same journal. In 1848, in conjunction 
