pdf 25 MB - BSBI Archive

271
NEW PUBLICATION.
Bottings on the Roadside in Nicaragua, Fanamd, and- Mosquito. By
Captain Bedfobu Pim, E.N., and Berthold Seemann, Ph.D.,
etc. With Phites aud Maps. 8vo. 468 pp. London : Chapman
and Hall.
Although comments of any kind on this book—the first half of
which was written by Dr. Seemann, the latter half by Captain Pim
cannot be looked for at this place, yet it may not be superfluous to
note some of the contents as far as they may concern botany.
The book opens with Dr. Seemann's visit to the Isthmus of Panama
in March, 1866, he having landed, at Colon, on the Atlantic side.
" It took four hours and a half to get across the isthmus, wMch to some of
my fellow-passengers seemed long ; but not so to me, who had formerly spent
four days iu going over the same distance. At the various stations where the
train stops there are very fine . American houses, surrounded by nice flowergardens
and neat white fences, forming a singular contrast with the wretched
huts of the native negroes, which are neither better nor worse than I have
known them twenty years ago. Yet food is as abundant as ever, and wages are
much higher. To me it was a great treat to revel once more amongst the
vegetation of a country about which I wrote the first Flora. The palm-groves
seemed to nod then- feathery leaves in friendly recognition ; and many of the
trees and shrubs which I introduced
fi-iends, glad to see me again."
to Science seemed to be so many old
The neighbourhood of Panama is very fine. In the savanas
" you have the most lovely park-hke scenery in the world,— beautiful short
grass, capital for galloping upon, clumps of fine trees and shrubs, a gentlyundulating
ground, little rivulets and now and then glimpses of the city, the
bay, and the islands. A Hthogram published by Appleton, of Kew York, of
which nearly all the copies were destroyed by fire, gives an excellent idea of
these savanas and their vegetation ; and it is the only one I have seen that
really does .justice to the neighbourhood of Panama."
In this picture there is a very good illustration of the growth of
the singular Hederaceous tree Didymocarpus Morototoni, Dene, et PI.
Embarking at Panama on one of the steamers going up the w^est
coast of America, Dr. Seemann landed at Corinto (Eealejo), the
principal port of Nicaragua, where he " ate a dish of Cabbage-palm,
as a botanical curiosity," and thence travelling all night, partly by
boat, and partly on muleback, he
—
" reached Leon at seven o'clock in the morning, rather tired, and found
the street thickly strewn with Eoses, Frangipanis {Phimierias), Oleanders, and
—
—