lxxviii 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



in Mosambique by Dr. Peters has been published at Berlin m a 

 pretentious illustrated volume, chiefly by the late Dr. Klotzsch. Dr. 

 Welwitsch has given a preliminary list of the Angola portion of his 

 collections, in the Annales do Conselho Ultramarino for 1858 ; 

 Dr. "Wawra and M. Peyritsch, in a Sertum Benguelense, have 

 described a small set of Benguelan plants gathered by the former 

 during a fortnight's stay of the Austrian corvette Carolina on that 

 coast ; and a few detached papers on isolated genera or species have 

 appeared here or at Paris. I may add, however, that there is now 

 some hope that our Admiralty is about to take steps for obtaining 

 some practical result from these botanical expeditions, in the shape 

 of a General Flora of tropical Africa. 



Next to tropical Africa, the most remarkable novelties in botany 

 are supplied by New Caledonia and Madagascar. These are chiefly 

 in French hands ; and detached notices of some of them have ap- 

 peared in various French periodicals. I understand, also, that the 

 authorities of the Jardin des Plantes are in hopes of inducing their 

 Government to sanction at least a Flora of New Caledonia, in imi- 

 tation of the Colonial Floras of other Governments. 



There remains the New World ; and here my first feeling is one 

 of deep pain, in which all lovers of progress and civilization must 

 partake. The deplorable internecine contest now going on in the 

 once United States of North America appears to have put a stop to 

 all works of importance in natural history, so many of which were 

 supported at considerable cost by their Government. Dr. Torrey's 

 papers on Fremont's Californian Plants and Mr. Chapman's Flora 

 of the Southern States were fortunately completed before the out- 

 break ; but the valuable publications of Dr. A. Gray on their own 

 flora, or on that of various countries visited by their expeditions 

 or collectors, remain incomplete, or arc only continued in abridged 

 notices in Proceedings of some of their Societies. I feel sure that 

 every lover of science will join in the fervent wish that our gifted 

 cousins may soon turn from scenes of bloodshed, and again devote 

 themselves to the cultivation of the arts of peace and progress. 



In South America there are two Statos whose comparative tran- 

 quillity has enabled their Governments to pay some attention to the 

 calls of science. The vast empire of Brazil is in a state of progress. 

 \{\<> Janeiro has her Vellozian Society of Natural History, whose se- 

 cretary, Dr. Capanem:i, lias recently returned from accompanying as 

 Naturalvi OH expedition for the investigation of the resources of several 

 of the tropical districts ; and it is chiefly the support of the Brazi- 

 lian Government that enables Dev. Martins to continue the elaborate 



