120 Dr Kuhlon the Vegetable Productions of Madeira. 



of a letter received by Dr Nees Von Esenbeck, from Dr 

 Kuhl, who undertook a scientific voyage to the East Indies, 

 at the expence of the King of the Netherlands. 



Dated on board the Nordloh, Sept. 27, 1820, 5° West 

 Longitude from Greenwich, 29° south latitude. 

 We had, for a long time previous to our arrival at Ma- 

 deira, been indulging in the anticipation of traversing every 

 part of the island, which, indeed, is but little known: but 

 a residence of five days seemed too short to make us per- 

 fectly acquainted with it ; and had it not been for the ready 

 advice and active assistance of a gentleman of the highest re- 

 spectability, Mr Veitch, the English consul, we should only 

 have confined ourselves to the coast, and seen nothing of the 

 interior, which can only be visited with the assistance of 

 guides, and they again are not easily procured. The roads 

 are nowhere better than footpaths, and, in many places, there 

 are none at all, save, the rocky beds or margins of the rivers, 

 where you are obliged to leap from one stone to another, often 

 among thorns and bushes. In this way we travelled for some 

 distance by night, having devoted too much time during the 

 day to botanizing, and then we could procure no shelter. We 

 had travelled from four in the morning till ten at night, with- 

 out resting above an hour, and then were obliged to lie down 

 to sleep upon the bare rocks till the moon arose, and lighted 

 us to the country house of the English consul, where we ar- 

 rived richly laden with the spoils of the preceding day, at 

 about six o'clock in the morning. I could easily give you an 

 account of our excursion into the interior of the island, but, 

 I believe, that some botanical information will be more accep- 

 table to you. We examined every spot with the greatest at- 

 tention, and scarcely suffered a single plant that was in flower 

 to escape us. We collected, in the five days we spent in 

 the country, altogether 224 species, and about 1000 speci- 

 mens. Vegetation, however, is in general poor, and bore 

 the character rather of that of Europe, than of the neigh- 

 bouring Africa. As to the animals, they belong to European 

 species, or are closely allied to them: Still, however, in what 

 concerned the plants, the entire absence of Oaks, Firs, Birch, 



l 



