BOTANICAL IN BEX, 
55 
SPECIA L CORRESPONDENCE. 
|^NE of the pleasantest features of journalism is the privilege of collecting 
facts upon any particular subject and present them to a reading public as in- 
formation. But some subjects are always more interesting than others, or at 
least, some subjects are interesting to more people than others; hence, they 
are more carefully pursued. This is particularly the case with those readers 
who wish to learn more of the progress of our knowledge in botany, and as 
we have been fortunate enough to collect a mass of material bearing directly upon 
this point, since we published our Annual Review of Botanical Progress, Jan. num- 
ber, 1880, we will devote a small space in this number of the Index to a review of 
the material. 
It is a well known fact that all the large new plant merchants live in Europe and 
employ a large number of collectors annually. Nearly every large house sends out 
from one to four scientific and practical collectors, and in addition employ a number 
of persons who permanently reside abroad to collect many of the local plants, bulbs 
or seeds from their respective residence, in the January number we have given a 
very complete list, and will add here a few more. J. N. Verschaffelt’s letter from 
Ghent, Belgium, being delayed, and not reaching us until too late for the January 
number, we will give its new points here. He employs one collector in North Af- 
rica, three in Australia, two in Brazil, two at the Cape of Good Hope, two in Mex- 
ico, one in Natal, one in New Zealand, and two in South America. 
J. Linden, Ghent, Belgium, employs one in Africa, one in Australia, two in Bra- 
zil, one at the Cape of Good Hope, two in Central America, and one in Mexico. 
Otto Froebel & Co., of Zurich, had only home (European) collectors in 1 870. 
They were, namely, one in the Pyrenees, one in the Italian Alps, and one in the 
Eastern Alps. 
Frederick von der Heiden, of Hilden, Germany, employs one collector in Mexico 
searching for new or rare Cactus, Echeverias and other succulents. He has a very 
extensive correspondence with lovers of this class of plants from all parts of the 
world, and is desirous to correspond with others interested in the same subject. 
Henry Golding has moved further inland at the Cape of Good Hope, and still 
finds much of interest in that strange country. 
M r. C. F. Creswell writes from Melbourne, (Australia,) : “ 1 have one man col- 
lecting through the Colonies of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, who has 
collected in all 857 distinct varieties of Australian seeds and plants, now on exhibi- 
tion at Sydney, N. S. W. The exhibit includes one variety unknown to botanical 
science, a specimen of which is now in the hands of Baron F. von Mueller, Govern- 
ment Botanist, of Victoria, for naming and classifying. The Baron will probably 
name this plant in honor of its discoverer, Mr. A. de la Camara, a gentleman of 
great botanical ability.” 
Among the Plant Collectors abroad, of which we should have made mention in 
the January number, was T. M. Hildebrandt, of Duesseldorf, now in Africa; Prof. 
H. Ohlburg, in Japan, (since deceased); Eduard Klabock and B. Handa, (Austrians,) 
in Mexico. 
Additional Necrology of Botanists for 1879: In England, William Mudd, Botanic 
Gardens Cambridge, George Gordon, Cheswick. In Germany, Dr. Ph. Wilhelm 
Funke, vE 88, at Halle, (Rheinish Prussia,) Comte Lambertye, Espernery. In Aus- 
tria, Dr. Edward Fenzl, at Vienna. 
The botany of the Kuldja District (Northern and Central Asia) and the adjacent 
tracts to the north was studied by M. Regel, of St Petersburg, and rich collections 
of plants made, while the southern part of the same district and the confines of 
Chinese Turkestan were traversed by M. Fetissoff, the Director of the Botanical 
Garden at Vernoe. This gentleman demonstrated that the supposed volcanoes in 
the Kuldja District were really coal-beds in a state of combustion. His researches 
to the south, in the vicinity of Chinese territory, were checked by the hostility of a 
tribe called Champans, who fired on the party. Messrs. Middendorf and Smirnoff 
made a survey of the economic resources of the Ferganah Province; while Messrs. 
Mushketoff and Severtsoff conducted two separate explorations of the Pamir, which 
have left but little of these difficult highlands unmapped. — Atlieneum. 
