PREFACK ix 



acknowledge my obligations to Sir W. J. Hooker and 

 Dr. Lindley, for the useful suggestions which they 

 kindly offered, in directing my attention, previous 

 to my departure from England, to the botanical 

 treasures which Madagascar was known to contain. 

 Nor would I omit on this occasion to express my 

 grateful sense of the hospitality and kindness of 

 His Excellency Sir James Higginson, Governor of 

 Mauritius at the time of my visit, to General 

 Sutherland and General Hay, the late Mr. and Mrs. 

 Kelsey, the Rev. J. Le Brun, and Messrs. I'Estrange, 

 as well as that of other friends in Mauritius and at 

 the Cape of Good Hope. 



The kindness evinced by these friends was not only 

 gratifying to myself personally, as a stranger amongst 

 them, but also highly encouraging as an expression 

 of the deep interest felt in the welfare of the people 

 to whom my visits were directed. 



W. E. 



Hoddesden, October, 1858. 



