European exploration of Africa
One of the ships under command of Diogo Dias arrived at a coast that was not in East Africa. Two years later, a chart already showed an elongated island east of Africa that bore the name Madagascar. But only a century later, between 1613 and 1619, did the Portuguese explore the island in detail. They signed treaties with local chieftains and sent the first missionaries, who found it impossible to make locals believe in Hell, and were eventually expelled.
Flora of Madagascar
French naturalist Alfred Grandidier was a preeminent 19th-century authority on Malagasy wildlife. His first visit in 1865 was followed by several other expeditions. He produced an atlas of the island and, in 1885, published "L'Histoire physique, naturelle et politique de Madagascar", which would comprise 39 volumes. Although his main contributions were in zoology, he was also a prolific plant collector; several plants were named after him, including Grandidier's baobab ("Adansonia grandidieri") and the endemic succulent genus "Didierea". The British missionary and naturalist Richard Baron, Grandidier's contemporary, lived in Madagascar from 1872 to 1907 where he also collected plants and discovered up to 1,000 new species; many of his specimens were described by Kew botanist John Gilbert Baker. Baron was the first to catalogue Madagascar's vascular flora in his "Compendium des plantes malgaches", including over 4,700 species and varieties known at that time.