EXPEDITION TO THE ORINOCO. 281 



brother at La Rochelle. The plants have been sorted into 

 three divisions, as we have two or three specimens of each variety. 

 One of these reduced herbariums we shall carry about with us 

 for purposes of comparison ; a second one, belonging to Bonpland 

 (for I naturally share everything with him), has been already 

 despatched to France, while the third I am sending off to-day 

 to London through Mr. John Fraser, by way of Charleston. 

 This last herbarium is in two cases, and contains, with grasses 

 and cryptogamia, 1,600 different species, most of which are from 

 the unexplored parts of Parime and Gruiana, from the district 

 between the Eio Negro and Brazil which we visited last spring. 

 By thus dividing our treasures we shall considerably diminish 

 the risk of loss. 



6 The idea has occurred to me that as a greater variety of 

 subjects lias come under my investigation during this journey 

 than could possibly be expected to interest any one reader, it 

 might be desirable to publish my observations in separate parts. 

 I would propose that the first part, for instance, should contain 

 only an account of the expedition from a physico-moral point 

 of view, touching only upon those topics of general interest 

 which would be sure to command the attention of every well- 

 educated man : such as the characteristics of the Indian races, 

 their language and customs, the trade of the colonies, descriptions 

 of the towns, the aspect of the country, the system of agricul- 

 ture, data relative to the heights of mountains, meteorological 

 results. Then, in separate volumes : 1. Geology and the Con- 

 st ruction of the Earth. 2. Astronomical Observations, Determi- 

 nations of Latitude and Longitude, Observations of Jupiter, 

 Experiments in Refraction. ... 3. Physics and Chemistry ; 

 Experiments upon the Chemical Constitution of the Atmo- 

 sphere; Hygrometric and Barometric Eesults ; Observations 

 on Electricity, Pathology, Excitability. ... 4. Description of 

 new species of Apes, Crocodiles, Birds, Insects . . . ; Anatomy 

 of marine animals. ... 5. The Botanical Researches in con- 

 junction with Bonpland, to include not merely the enumera- 

 tion of new genera and species, but descriptions after the sys- 

 tem of Linnseus of all those species already known, of which we 

 have seen more specimens than other observers a department of 

 our work which will, I hope, contain between 5,000 and 6,000 



