PREFACE. 



has inspired ; the valuable additions to our stock of fruits and 

 vegetables, but especially to the former ; and the unexampled 

 increase in the number of ornamental plants which its in- 

 dustry has made ; are ample proofs that the efforts of the 

 Society have been unremitting, and that they have been 

 attended with corresponding success. 



In the Preface to the fourth volume it was stated, that, 

 under the* auspices of His Majesty's Government, and of the 

 East India Company, three Collectors had been sent to dif- 

 ferent parts of the world : of these, it is melancholy to add, 

 that only one, Mr. George Don, survives. 



Mr. John Potts, who had been sent to Bengal and China, 

 and who had been the means of introducing into this country 

 a large stock of Chinese and East Indian plants, outlived 

 his return but a few weeks ; having contracted a disease in 

 the execution of his mission, which terminated in his death, 

 in October, 1822. 



Mr. John Forbes, whose destination was the east coast 

 of Africa, with the surveying expedition commanded by 

 Captain William Owen of the Royal Navy, died at Senna, 

 while making his way up the Zambezi river, in August, 

 1823; having, during the interval between his departure 

 from England and the time of his death, enriched our collec- 

 tions with an vxnusual number of entirely new plants. To find 

 a successor to this enterprising and intelligent young man 

 was not an easy task. Captain Owen, however, with that 

 zeal for science which always marks his conduct, lost no time 

 in engaging Mr. Hilsenberg, a German botanist, whom he 

 found at the Mauritius ; and thus did all in his power to com 

 pensate a loss, which botanical science will long deplore* 



