PREFACE 
vii 
printed or written Articles, and scattered Notes — 
that I have had to examine, only about one-third 
have been found suitable for a work of combined 
general and botanical interest and of moderate 
bulk. 
It has been my endeavour to bring together 
whatever might be useful to botanists, and also 
to include all matters of interest to general readers. 
This task has been to me a labour of love ; and I 
have myself so high an opinion of my friend's work, 
both literary and scientific, that I venture to think 
the present volumes will take their place among 
the most interesting and instructive books of travel 
of the nineteenth century. 
I have to thank Sir Clements Markham and 
Sir Joseph Hooker for their interest in obtaining 
a grant of £io from the Royal Society towards 
the expense of copying Spruce's letters preserved 
at Kew and some of the less legible of the Journals. 
The Pharmaceutical Society has also allowed me 
to copy such as were suitable among the great 
mass of letters which Spruce wrote to Mr. Daniel 
Hanbury; while Messrs. John Teasdale and George 
Stabler have lent me others of great interest. 
In order to render the work as useful as possible 
to botanists, the generic and specific names of every 
plant mentioned by Spruce have been carefully 
indexed, the species alone being in italics ; and to 
avoid errors they have been compared in all doubtful 
cases with the copious Index in Lindley's Vegetable 
Kingdom, which was nearly contemporary with 
Spruce's travels. 
For the convenience of non-botanical readers, 
most of the longer passages which are wholly 
