NATURAL ORDERS. 129 



sixteenth; and in a manuscript catalogue of plants of 

 equinoctial America, iu the library of Sir Joseph Banks, 

 they are nearly in the same proportion. 



In estimating the comparative value of these different 

 materials, I may, in the first place, observe that though 

 the herbarium from Congo was collected in the dry season of 

 the countiy, there is no reason to suppose on that account 

 that the proportion of this family of plants, in particular, 

 is materially or even in any degree diminished, nor can [mg 

 this objection be stated to the Sierra Leone collection, in 

 which its relative number is still smaller. 



To the Compositse in Dr. Roxburgh's Flora Indica, 

 however, a considerable addition ought, no doubt, to be 

 made ; partly on the ground of his having apparently paid 

 less attention to them himself, and still more because his 

 correspondents, whose contributions form a considerable 

 part of the Flora, have evidently in a great measure neglec- 

 ted them. This addition being made, the proportion of 

 Composilee in India would not differ very materially from 

 that of the north coast of New Holland, according to my 

 own collection, which I consider as having been formed in 

 more favorable circumstances, and as probably giving an 

 approximation of the true proportions in the country ex- 

 amined. Baron Humboldt's herbarium, though absolutely 

 greater than any of the others referred to on this subject, 

 is yet, with relation to the vast regions whose vegetation 

 it represents, less extensive than either that of the north 

 coast of New Holland, or even of the line of the Congo. 

 And as it is in fact as much the Flora of the Andes as of 

 the coasts of intratropical America, containing families 

 nearly or wholly unknown on the shores of equinoctial 

 countries, it may be supposed to have several of those 

 faiuihes which are common to all such countries, and 

 among them Compositse, in very different proportion. At 

 the same time it is not improbable that the relative num- 

 ber of this family in equinoctial America, may be greater 

 than in the similar regions of other intratropical countries ; 

 while there seems some reason to suppose it considerably 

 smaller on the west coast of Africa. This diminished 



