The botanist can not study the pro tuctions of the tomd zone without a strong desire to see with his own eyes the regions of perpetual summer. This desire grows from year to year, but each succeeding year generally bmds him closer to local duties and his home. In the case of the author, this centripetal force had not developed itself in due proportion to its antagonist, and a visit to the tropic world was the result. His attention was directed more particularly to New Granada by the scantiness of botanical information on a region so profusely rich in plants. Not even a catalogue of a collector had appeared since the results of Humboldt svisit, at the beginning of this century, were given to tho world. Nor wei-e the sources of general information on that republic much more copious or recent Our libraries were found to contain several works on Colombia, written during that terrible struggle with the mother country which terminated, or, rather, took on a chronic form in 1825, but not a volume was to be found which had been written since New Granada had taken heiplace among the nations. No answer could be found to the inquiry what eifect thirty years of liberty had produced on a land that had been till that time sealed up from all the world by Spanish despotism. This void in our geographical infonnation wae the determining cause of the journey narrated in this volume. Thus my task was commenced with a more conect esthnatc of the need of the undertaking than of its difficulty, A want of reliable facts began to produce its inconveniences even before leaving our shores, impeded the journey at every stage, and afterward sti Umore embarrassed the composition of the nan-ative. (Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don"t occur in the book.) About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mytholog