178 JORNAL DE SGIENCIAS MATHEMATIGAS 



From his arrival in London lhe study of the coUections went on 

 progressing and Dr. Welwitsch found himself most liberally aided in it 

 by first class botanists as Mess/' De Candolle, W. Hooker, J. D. Hooker, 

 Bentham, Oliver, Seemann, Reichenbach, Schott, Hiern and others, who 

 showed themselves solicitous to profit by the valuable material thus ga- 

 thered. A series of publications was thus undertaken in journals and re- 

 cords of scientific socieíies, or olherwise; sorae in the name of Dr. Wel- 

 witsch, others in those oí different fellow labourers to whom he had 

 addressed himself for the purpose. The Sertum angolense and the Flora 

 of tropical Africa are the first to be mentioned for the abundance of 

 valuable information which they contain. 



The Sertum anguknse, sive stirpimn qnarundam novarum sive mi- 

 nus cognitarum in itinere per Angolam et Bengiiellam observatarum des- 

 criptiOj was published in the Tramactions of the Linn. Society of Lon- 

 don with excellent plates, and was prepared wilh ali the care necessary 

 to render it worlhy of its object on the part of the author. In this work 

 he thought proper himself to put logether his most choice materiais, and 

 to give thus also, as we are informed, the best answer to those who un- 

 derrating his capabilities mortified him by giving as their opinion that, 

 good as he was as a collecíor, he was unable to classify his plants scien- 

 tifically; an excessivo mistrusí, quite peculiar to him, making him still 

 unhappy wilh the idea that this very work of his, which had cost him 

 so much care, remained unduly eslimaled: a sentiment which is to be 

 met with in lhe letters he addressed to me and in which he complains 

 often in this way. 



The Flora of Tropical Africa, a work ordered by the British Go- 

 vernment and executed under the direction of the Staff of the Herbarium 

 at Kew, coiíiprises the results of ali former expedilions in those latitudes, 

 both as regards easlern and western Africa, and abundantly recognises 

 those of lhe Angola expedition, unique as they are still in a great mea- 

 sure as regards Lower Guinea. And such is the value of the contingent 

 Ihus furnished lo this work, that the publicalion has been interrupted 

 witli the appearnnce of the second vol, since the aulhors have ceased 

 to have at their disposal the colleclions of the Portuguese expedition; 

 some even of the natural families included in these first volumes, such 

 as lhe Malvaceae, lhe Burseraceae and others, having been left incom- 

 plete, as Dr. Welwitsch informs us in his letters, on account of his il- 

 Iness or of his being already to that time at variance with the aulhors, 

 and not allowing ihera access to his collections. 



Mi". Bentham in his Description of some new Genera and Species 



