Mr. H. H. Hinds on Geugrnphic Bolain/. 13 



ber of species described in the Hist fonr volinnes of DeCandoUe's 

 * Prodronins Regni W'getabilis/ a work uneqnalled for tlje cor- 

 rectness and copiousness of its details. Exactly one hundred 

 families are described, and they comprehend 20,100 species*. 

 The i)ublication of this work commenced in 1824, and for the 

 period intervening to the present tinu> I have allowed 5000 more, 

 including those whiehhave been since described,<)rwliichareknown 

 to or in the possession of botanists, and have not hitherto been 

 published. After looking back at the rapid progress of botany 

 during this eentiu-y, 1 feel perfectly justified in making the most 

 liberal calculations, feelings by no means decreased on inspecting 

 those ])ortions of the globe as yet unexplored, and which do oc- 

 casionally contain districts su])posed to be as fertile as any known 

 countries elsewhere. There renuiins to be included in this work 

 from 150 to 200 natm-al families, for which I allow double the 

 above number, or 50,200. The cryptogamic plants are not yet 

 included ; the estimate of these amounts to 13,870, which I con- 

 sider as about the quantity either known from descriptions or 

 existing in herbaria. The great total obtained from these is then 

 the amount of plants at the present time in the hands of botanists, 

 cither from description or as dried specimens. 



]\ly conclusion as to the entire amount of vegetation rests on 

 the hypothesis that two-thirds are at present kno\\-n ; and should 

 any objections be raised to this, as leaving a far too liberal num- 

 ber undiscovered, it may be observed, that even in our own well- 

 explored island additions are frequently made to the native flora, 

 and the same is continually occurring throughout Europe. But 

 setting Europe aside, it will not be easy to discover any other 

 country, the vegetable productions of which have been thoroughly 

 explored. India certainly has not ; in Africa and Australia much 

 has to be done, and no portion of either of the Americas has been 

 examined with anything approaching precision, excepting the 

 United States, and even in these many discoveries may yet be 

 made. A great part of foreign countries are only examined at 

 particular seasons, and often diu-ing those less favourable to the 

 vegetation. In the tropics the wet season is the period for the 

 prevalence of sickness and fatal fevers, and then vegetation as- 

 sumes all its rank luxuriance ; many are the herbaceous plants 

 which are only then to be met with, and the traveller is usually 

 deterred from visiting them — if not his own fears, the repeated 

 warnings of the inhabitants compel him in the end to desist. 

 Natm-e has been as bountiful to some parts of Africa as any other 

 country, vegetation is wonderfully beautiful and luxuriant on the 



* The numerical distribution of these families will be found given in de- 

 tail for the six great divisions of the globe in the ninth vol. of the Ann of 

 N;it. Hi^t. pp. 11'), 4 16. 



