CHARLES WRIGHT. 471 



spring and summer upon this little island, and supplemented 

 in the spring of 1855, was in part the basis of Bentham's 

 " Flora Hongkongensis." In the autumn of 1854, interesting 

 collections were made on the Bonin and Loo Choo Islands, 

 and later upon the islands between the latter and Japan. 

 Still more extensive and important were the collections made 

 in Japan, especially those of the northern island, although the 

 stay was brief. Also those made in Behring's Straits, mainly 

 on Kiene or Arakamtchetchene Island, on the verge of the 

 Polar Sea, where the scientific members of the expedition 

 passed the month of August and a part of September, 1855. 

 Reaching San Francisco in October, the season being unpro- 

 pitious for botany, Mr. Wright was detached from the expe- 

 dition, and came home by way of San Juan del Sur and 

 Nicaragua, botanizing for a few weeks upon an island in the 

 Lake, and thence by way of Greytown to New York. 



In the following autumn (of 1856) Mr. Wright began his 

 prolific exploration of the botany of Cuba. Landing at San- 

 tiago de Cuba, on the southeastern part of the island, he 

 passed the winter of 1856-7 and the greater part of the en- 

 suing summer in that nearly virgin district, most hospitably 

 entertained by his countryman, Mr. George Bradford, and 

 among the caffetals of the mountains by M. Lescaille, return- 

 ing home with his rich collections early in the autumn. A 

 year later he revisited Cuba, was again received by his devoted 

 friends, extended his botanical explorations to the northern 

 coast, and also farther westward, exchanging the dense virgin 

 forest for open Pine-woods, like those of the Atlantic south- 

 ern States, stopping at various hatos or cattle-farms on his 

 route, but reaching better accommodations at Bayamo, when 

 his kind host, Dr. Don Manuel Yero, assisted him in making 

 some profitable mountain excursions. In the winter and 

 spring of 1861 he was again domiciled with the Lescailles at 

 Monte Verde and at the other coffee plantations of this kind 

 family ; and from thence he was able to extend his herboriza- 

 tions to the eastern coast from Baracoa to Cape Maysi. The 

 next winter he made his way westward to near the centre of 

 the island, making headquarters at the sugar-plantation of the 



