184 JORNAL DE SCIENGIAS íMATKEMATICAS 



for Ihem. He gives us also lhe colleclion of insects, and his books, with 

 some other objecls. In the enuncialion of lhe different legacies we íind 

 in the last place the Kew Gardens and Herbarium^ which would there" 

 fore receive the Avorst of the sets. This is ali the more notable as it 

 was precisely in this important estabhshment and with the aid of its 

 Staff that Dr. Welwitsch obtained the very best and abundant Informa- 

 tion respecting liis plants. We have but to recall here what we have 

 already said about the pubiications of Mess/^ Hooker, Bentham and Oli- 

 ver and about the Sertum Angolense itself, in which Dr. Welwitsch could 

 not dispense with the powerful aid of those botanists and of the collec- 

 tions they control. 



The authors of the Flora of Tropical Africa laid great weight upon 

 having at their disposal the Angolan coiiections^ reckoning them, as they 

 assert in the preface of their work, the most valuable material avai- 

 lable for it. Dr. Welwitsch granting them free access to his Herba- 

 rium had in return his plants specifically named and his collections suc- 

 cessively classified. A more nalional spirit would prefer having the plants 

 first named in a Portuguese publication before seeing them included in 

 a foreign one, and the instructions given to Dr. Welwitsch were more 

 in this sense, the means for such a work never having been refused. 

 This qnestion of priority bectween two Governments and the real inte- 

 rests of science and of the respectivo countries is however of a very se- 

 condary characler, and while giving it up on behalf of a friendly Govern- 

 ment the very valuable aid they lent us by means of their botanists and 

 sciencific men was lo a cerlain extent compensaled The Kew Institution 

 had been lhe first to help us in lhe maller, and it was but righl to con- 

 template it in lhe distribution of the collections in a flrst and not in the 

 last place, and if in the will nolhing like is to be found, lhe reason is no 

 other Ihan the recent inlerruplion of former friendly relalions belween 

 the Staff at Kew and Dr. W^elwilsh; an evenl wiiich some wished to 

 turn to the advanlage of lhe Brilish Museum, seizing on that favourable 

 occasion of atlracting lhe good will of the late Dr. Welwitsch, at the cost 

 of the Portuguese interests in the whole matter, as well as of those of 

 the Kew Museum. 



Dr. Welwitsch, like so many other dislinguished and enlhusiastic 

 men of science, had cerlain defecls in his good qualilies, viz a most 

 irritable selflove, and a most exaggerated mistrusl of every one and 

 every Ihing. This bad temperament was a source of constant annoyance 

 to himself and did not allow him lo be at peace with any one. I heard 

 this remark made of him by a friend of his and an acknowledger of his 



