106 Mr. G. Bentham^s Enumeration of the Plants 



three months, and returned to George Town in March, 1 836. In 

 the following month of September he again started for the river 

 Courantine, which he ascended in the course of October as far as lat. 

 4" 21^' N., and from November of the same year to March, 1837, was 

 spent in an expedition up the river Berbice. In the autumn of 1837 

 he again ascended the Essequibo and Rupunoony, and from his former 

 post at Anna-y made an excursion to the chain of mountains at the 

 sources of that river, and crossed the ridge to the equatorial line, and 

 returned to Anna-y, from whence the last accounts are dated in 

 February last. Detailed reports of these several expeditions will be 

 found in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. vi. p. 

 224, vol, vii. p. 285, and in the Reports of the Council of the So- 

 ciety for the years 1835-6, 1836-7, and 1837-8, attached to the same 

 journal*. 



The length of time thus spent in a tract of country at once so 

 little known, and so varied in aspect, in a quarter of the globe where 

 vegetation is perhaps the richest, would lead us to expect a most va- 

 luable harvest as the result ; but unfortunately a series of disappoint- 

 ments, arising from serious accidents as well as from the unhealthiness 

 of the climate, counteracted much the persevering endeavours of Mr. 

 Schomburgk. The intermittent fevers, which attacked the whole 

 party in the first expedition, rendered them incapable of taking the 

 necessary precautions to protect their specimens from the unceasing 

 rains, and those which they collected to replace them were lost at 

 one of the rapids in descending the Essequibo ; and in the last ex- 

 pedition to the mountains under the line, the difficulty of conveying 

 the indispensable means of support wholly preclud.ed them from car- 

 rying the paper requisite for drying specimens of the rich vegetation 

 observed. The whole collection consists, however, of about 700 spe- 

 cies, gathered chiefly in the Savannahs about Anna-y and along the 

 Essequibo and Rupunoony, with a considerable number from the 

 shores of the Berbice and Courantine. 



The natural orders the most abundant appear to be Leguminosce, 

 Melastomacece, Rubiacece, and Composite^ ; and amongst the most re- 

 markable plants, in orders less abundant in species, may be men- 

 tioned the splendid water-lily, dedicated by him to Queen Victoria, 

 some curious new species of Podostemeee, and many Orchidaceee of 

 great beauty. It had been my intention to enumerate the whole 

 collection nearly in the order adopted by DeCandoUe in his Prodro- 

 mus, but as that would require the having previously determined the 



* Letters from Mr. Scliomburgk, with aa account of his journey, will be 

 found in our first volume, p. 63. 



