HORTICULTURAL SOCIKTY OF LONDON. 



2-23 



Horticultural Society, 21, Regent Street, I4th July, 1H4(). — 

 Sir, — " 1 am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, 

 No. 39, which the Council have taken into their serious con- 

 sideration J and I have now to inform you that on account of 

 the disturbed state of Guatemala, ai)d the probability that you 

 will not succeed in findinii,- there plants suited to the open air in 

 En<;land, it has been resolved to remove you from your present 

 station. It is the opinion of the Committee, nominated by the 

 Council to determine in what direction you are next to proceed, 

 that the most eligible country will be the equatorial pnrt of South 

 America, in the midst of the lofty mountians and high table land 

 of the Andes of Popayan, Quito and Guayaquil. \ou will, there- 

 fore, take measures for reaching the Gulf of Guayaquil, or the 

 nearest possible place, with as little delay as practicable, and it is 

 supposed you will be able to do so by some opportunity from 

 the coast of Guatenjala. The Committee would be glad that 

 you should, in the first instance, establish yourself if possible at 

 Loxa, or some other station among the mountains near the coast, 

 whence you can make excursions, until a collection shall have 

 been formed of sufficient importance to be worth sending home 

 by Cape 'Horn. Of seeds obtained at Loxa you will reserve 

 duplicates to bring home with you. Having exhausted the re- 

 sources of that station you will proceed northwards towards the 

 city of Santa Fe de Bogota, carrying with you the collections 

 made upon the road ; or procuring a conveyance for them to 

 that city. But as the way may be expected to be long and difficult, 

 it will be desirable that you should not encumber yourself with 

 bulky articles, but confine your collections at that time to seeds 

 of very handsome plants, or to such objects as are most portable. 

 It is however hoped that boxes can be sent to England from 

 Quito, or from some port in Popayan, in which case you will 

 also take those places as new centres of operation, previous to 

 ycur proceeding direct to Santa Fe. These countries possess the 

 richest vegetation in America, and the great height of the moun- 

 tains together with the varied climate upon their fianks, promise 

 a rich harvest of beautiful novelties. No horticulturist has ever 

 visited as a collector the forests of Cinchonas, where the tempera- 

 ture is mild and equable, and where those beautiful and valuable 

 plants, none of which have ever reached England alive, are asso- 

 ciated with the most magnificent species of Bejaria, Thiebaudia, 

 Macleania, and other vaccinaceous genera. You will understand 

 that it is the more hardy plants of these and other families that we 

 expect you will be able to procure, and that, as heretofore, every 

 object is to be subordinate to that of procuring species which 

 will bear at least an English summer without protection. Ab- 

 solutely hardy plants we do not expect, unless you can reach 



