PHYSICAS E NATURAES 177 



cimens, as well as the care and especial knowledge, with which lhe 

 notes were written and of which they are the best proof. It has been 

 precisely the singularly good character of these colleclions which has 

 excited ambitious claims to them, driving the Government to the ex- 

 tremity of claiming the property which belongs to it by so many good 

 litles. 



Though the main object of the expedition was the phytogeography 

 of the Angola provinces, Dr. Welwitsch was assidous also in collecting 

 zoological specimens, and his conlributions of Ihis nature, comprising 

 the insects are also most considerable, especially in the section of Co- 

 leoptera, whose study being more connected with that of plants, chiefly 

 excites the atlention of the botanists. His terrestrial and fluvial Mol- 

 lusca afiforded material enough for an especial monograph from MJ 

 Arthur Morelet, which was published in France and entitled, Voyage 

 du Dr. Welwitsch, exécutée par ordre du gouvernement portugais dans 

 Í€ royaume d' Angola et de Benguella, mollusques terrestres et fluiiatiles, 

 awork illustrated with nuraerous coloured plates. 



The íirst official report on the results of the expedition, which Dr. 

 Welwitsch adressed to the Government was published in the Annaes 

 do conselho ultramarino, Dec. 1858, with the ti lie Apontamentos phy- 

 togeographicos sobre a provinda de Angola. He dated it from Loanda 

 July 1858, thus sending it before his departure from Africa. This report 

 is a general sketch, portraying the phytogeography of the vast regions 

 he had travelled over, and served as a sort of introduction to the more 

 substantial work on the subject, which was to be and could only be 

 undertaken in Europe, after another set of detailed investigations, which 

 ■were possible only here. It contains nevertheless most valuable and co- 

 pious informations. 



While in Lisbon and after his arrival from Loanda Dr. Welwitsch 

 occupied himself in arranging the collections, but it became quite evi- 

 dent that a thorough study of them required, as is always the case, 

 the scientific assistance, which w^as only to be found in the foremost Eu- 

 ropean Museums, and with lhe aid of scientific men of especial autho- 

 rity in the matter, in order to obtain the very best judgment on the 

 materiais collected. It became therefore necessary to undertake a voyage 

 to those institutions along with the whole of the collections, and Dr. 

 Welwitsch was authorised to do this by decree dated 22 July 1863, 

 being allowed £ 2 per day during this coramission. (See Pleadings and 

 Proofs Doe. M. 2.) He set out for London in that very year and he re- 

 mained there till his death, which took placeon the 20.*'^ of Oct. 1872. 



JORN. DE SCIENC. MATH. PHYS. E NAT. — N. XIX. 12 



