106 
BOTANICAL, INDEX, 
coming number of the Botanical Index, which I peruse with great interest, and 
which I think of great value both practically and theoretically, you would inform 
your readers of the proposed, and already begun, exploration of the West India 
Islands, which I have lately undertaken, especially as far as the botany of this archi- 
pelago is concerned, having for a number of years made a particular study of the 
botany of the islands of Santa Cruz and the Virgin Islands, a treatise on which was 
lately published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. I now propose to 
extend these investigations, which, besides tending to collect new species of plants, 
also have for their object to define the geographical distribution of the species over 
the various islands, and in other respects to elucidate the phytogeographical phenom- 
ena, to others still very little known islands, especially Porto Rico, Ilayti, Dominica 
and Trinidad. Having trained collectors with me, I am prepared to offer sets of plants 
for herbariums to botanists in the United States for $10 a hundred species; also col- 
lections of named woods for $15 the hundred species, and of fruits and seeds for $8 
the hundred. Applications for these collections, which no doubt will be acceptable to 
botanists and amateurs, may be sent to the Curator of Harvard University Museum, 
Cambridge, Mass., who will receive the same and have them forwarded to me. The 
first set of one hundred species of prepared West India plants is alreadyready for * 
distribution. Yours Truly, EGGERS. 
Cape of Good Hope, July 20, 1880. 
Mr. L. B. Case — Dear Sir: I beg to acknowledge with thanks your very kind 
letter and the various numbers of the Botanical Index, and was much interested in 
looking Over the numbers from the commencement in noting the gradual develop- 
ment of the Index from a mere trade catalogue into a beautiful magazine. I very 
much admire the front cover of the Index. I was much interested in the various 
articles on the Native Fruits of America, also in the articles on the Chinese and 
Japanese Pears, and the Diospyros Kaki. I should very much like to send for the 
varieties of the-Diospyros to be had in America, but unfortunately by a late order of 
the Governor and Council, no plants are allowed to be introduced for fear of bringing 
the Pbilloxera, of which we are as yet free. So stringent is the rule that not onlj' 
live plants but even bulbs and tubers are prohibited; potatoes are not exempt, so we 
may sigh in vain for your Beauty of Hebron or Late Rose. 1 must procure the Rev. 
Lom'is’s work on the Diospyros. 
Perhaps a few rough notes on some of our common plants may interest you. The 
Calla Lily, Richardia v. Ethiopica , is very common here, fringing all the streams and 
growing in moist places, but very rarely growing in the water; it flowers all through 
the winter. The spotted-leaved variety is much less common and grows on the 
hill?, generally among or at the foot of rocks. I have never met any growing near 
Water. 
fj A very, common plant here is the Red Hot Poker or Flame Plant, the Tritoma 
ZJv.aria , which grows near the foot of low hills near the coast; but up-country where 
climafe is drier it is grown in moist places and beside streams. Another common 
plaptmear the coast with handsome foliage, the Streliizia Regina , with flowers of 
blue and orange and red, resembling some gay bird. 
We have two varieties of Erythrina here; the one is a deciduous tree of about 20 
