12* INTRODUCTION. 



when Liunreus and Jussieu were as ignorant as themselves, 

 and would have continued so had they waited for intuitive 

 knowledge. Sharp eyes and willing hands are the grand re- 

 quisites for a botanical collector ; and if these be once set in 

 motion, knowledge of affinities and structure will gradually 

 follow as operations extend. Many of the most successful 

 collectors of plants, by whose labours in all countries the 

 science has been so extended and enriched, have been persons 

 ignorant of, or but slightly acquainted with, Botany at the 

 time of their mission. 



There is one simple way in which all such persons may ren- 

 der important services, and by which they may gradually ac- 

 quire the experience which they would fain possess at start- 

 ing ; namely, by collecting and drying specimens of the plants 

 of their neighbourhood indiscriminately, without favour or 

 affection, from the tall forest tree to the moss or the lichen 

 on its trunk. From such collections only, sent from all parts 

 of the country to a common centre, can a Floea Capensis, 

 in any degree worthy of the subject, be prepared ; and should 

 I be favoured with such, and with the confidence of the col- 

 lectors, it will give me very great pleasure to promote their 

 views in this way, by undertaking the preparation, to the best 

 of my ability, of a Flora of South Africa. Confined as my 

 residence necessarily is to the neighbourhood of Cape Town, 

 I must trust to such help as I may thus receive for all plants 

 found beyond the narrow limits of the Cape District ; and it 

 therefore depends very much on persons attached to Botany 

 and scattered over the country, whether I shall ever be able 

 to undertake a Flora at all. I stand before them as a Can- 

 didate. 



W. H. Haevex. 



Cape Town, Jul if 1, 1838. 



