PHYSICAS E NATURAES 201 



the besl aathorised manner. Professor OHver being at presení, no doubl» 

 the botanist more acquainted with tropical African plants, and the one 

 who for this very purpose has more handled the Angola collections. 



The greater facility which this professor happens to possess for 

 such a task, will afford him more than to any other the possibility of 

 executing it in a short time, and Dr. Hooker makes us hope it will be 

 the labour of but a few months. Another resnlt of ali this will be 

 therefore to dispense us from having further care, time and means em- 

 ployed in a final classification of the study set, which would make us 

 still dependam upon the aid of foreign Museums, without which such 

 labours cannot be in our days thoroughly brought to an authorised con- 

 clusion, whereas by such a compromise we have the immediate possibi- 

 hty of arranging for our use an Angola Flora, that is, the discription of 

 the vegetation of the most valuable of the Portuguese Colonial Provinces, 

 and by such means the indication of the climate and agricultural capa- 

 bilities of that region, and an exact register of the origin of many ve- 

 getable productions, which constitute its natural richness. Such is indeed 

 the object and aim of ali like expeditions and such has been the case 

 with this one, ordered out by the Portuguese Government, causing much 

 care and cost, but carried out to the end with remarkable result by the 

 late Dr. Welwitsch. 



The exemplars of each vegetable species gathered in such expedi- 

 tions are usually numerous enough to build more than one collection. 

 In the Angola collection they are numerous enough to build many sets 

 which will give us happily the means of satisfying the ambitious de- 

 mands made by ali the great European Museums in general and even 

 by that of Melbourne in Austrália, which instantly begs to have one 

 such collection. With ali the advantage to science and credit of the 

 country engaged in such dislributions, there are still the means of ob- 

 taining through exchange olher collections or valuable objects, which 

 may considerably enrich our Museums. In this sense important pro- 

 mises have already been made on the part of the London Museums, in 

 which two good Angola Collections are to remain; and the like will 

 easily be obtained from the Berlin, Vienna, Paris and S. Petersburg Mu- 

 seums, and of olhers which wish to share in the distribution. 



On such terms the sentence pronounced on the 17.^^ Nov. 1875, 

 acknowledging our whole right, and involving nothing dishonourable to 

 the Government, became acceptable; some pecuniary sacrifico imposed, 

 but previously offered by the Government lo facilitate the settlement of 

 the case, had large compensations, not the least of them being the im- 



JORN. DE SCIENC. MATH. PHYS. E NAT. — N. XIX. 13» 



