COLONIAL FLORAS. 
499 
taken with regard to the West African Colonies, but it is most 
earnestly to be desired, that measures should be adopted speedily 
for publishing the magnificent collections of tropical African plants, 
Colonial and other, that have been accumulating during the last 
twenty years, from the combined exertions of many most distin¬ 
guished voyagers and travellers. These abound in interest and 
novelty, and are amply sufficient to afford an excellent general know¬ 
ledge of the vegetation of Tropical Africa, in all its aspects. They con¬ 
sist in the main ;—of Niger-valley plants collected partly by Dr. Baikie, 
the intrepid and energetic commander of the Niger expedition, who 
has spent no less than ten years on the river and its tributaries, but 
mainly by Mr. Barter, who was for five years the active and inde¬ 
fatigable Botanist to this expedition, and fell a victim to the climate; 
—of the large collections made by Dr. Kirk, and latterly by Dr. 
Meller, during Livingstone’s Zambesi, Shire, and Makololo country 
expeditions, and which contain a large and valuable series of notes 
and analyses made by the first-named accomplished naturalist;—of 
the magnificent collection made by Gustav Mann, the successor to 
Barter, but who never having found the means of joining the Niger 
expedition, was employed by the Admiralty in collecting upon the 
coast, islands, and mountains of the Gulf of Guinea, and who has 
successfully explored the Cameroon Mountains, the peaks of Fer¬ 
nando Po, St. Thomas, and Princes Island, the Gaboon river, Sierra 
del Crystal, and various places on the coast of Tropical Africa, be¬ 
tween Sierra Leone and the Gaboon;—the excellent collection made 
chiefly by Capt. Grant during Speke’s explorations of Central Africa, 
and the upper part of the Nile ;—and lastly, of miscellaneous collec¬ 
tions often of great extent and value, made by Petherick, Mansfield 
Parkyns, Yogel, Both, &c. in Abyssinia, Nubia, Kordofan, and 
Dpper Egypt. 
The expeditions through which these collections have been ob¬ 
tained at so great a sacrifice of life, and at so great peril to the 
survivors, have been all equipped either by or under the immediate 
superintendence of the Foreign Office and Colonial Office ; and it is to 
be hoped, that the small grant required for their publication, (amount¬ 
ing in all to only £1200. for authors’ remuneration and purchase 
of copies,) will be obtained from the Treasury very shortly, and the 
work speedily commenced. 
Mauritius and Seychelles , fyc .—With regard to the Flora of the 
Mauritius and Seychelles, of Honduras, and of British Guiana, as yet, 
nothing has been done, nor are our collections from these countries 
sufficiently complete to found full Floras upon. 
Australian Colonies .—In the above quoted article it was stated, 
that the Lords of the Treasury had refused to sanction the application 
on the part of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, for a small sum 
to defray the expenses of a Flora of the Australian Colonies. Foiled in 
this quarter, Sir W. Hooker immediately interested himself with the 
