118 APPENDIX. 



than a botanical standpoint *. He spent six years in Mexico, chiefly in the State of 

 Mexico, from 1571 to 1577 f , and must have worked most assiduously ; but the 

 greater part of the fruit of his labours was destroyed in the great fire at the Escurial 

 in 1671. Fortunately, however, his manuscripts relating to plants and animals escaped, 

 and were published, or some portion of them, in 1615 J. We have not seen this work, 

 of which, according to Pritzel §, there is a copy in the Imperial Library at Vienna ; but 

 of the much fuller and more interesting 'Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae' [|, 

 published in 1651, there is an excellent copy at Kew. This is a folio book of about 

 a thousand pages, containing numerous woodcut illustrations of plants and animals, 

 chiefly of the former, and mostly recognizable, and some very good. Conspicuous 

 among the flowers in the ornamental head- and tail-pieces are Tigridia, Cheirostemon, 

 and the famous "Flos Lyncei," probably Stanhopea tigrina. These singular forms 

 must have greatly excited the curiosity of those interested in flowers, long before any 

 attempt was made to introduce living plants of them into European gardens. Many 

 years after the publication of the work described, five manuscript volumes of Hernandez's 

 works, containing many corrections in the handwriting of Hernandez himself, were 

 found in the library of San Isidro, Madrid, and those relating to botany were published 

 under the superintendence of Gomez Ortega in 1790 % As this work is not illus- 

 trated it is less intelligible than the ' Rerum Medicamm.' 



Proceeding with this history in chronological sequence, or as nearly so as our data 

 will permit, Dr. William Houston, F.R.S., appears to be the next person deserving 

 notice here on account of his connexion with Mexican botany. He studied during 

 two years at Leyden, under Boerhaave **, from whom, probably, he imbibed a taste 

 for botanical pursuits; and on going to the West Indies in 1729, and later to Mexico, 

 he sent seeds of numerous plants to Philip Miller, the " Hortulanorum Princeps " of 

 his time, and Superintendent of the Apothecaries' Garden at Chelsea, where he raised 

 and cultivated many of the plants thus introduced. Houston's name is frequently 

 mentioned in Miller's incomparable ' Gardener's Dictionary ' as the collector of plants 



* Colmeiro, M., ' La Botanica y los Botanicos de la Peninsula Hispano-Lusitana,' 1858 : an admirable work, 

 to which we are indebted for most of the particulars in this Sketch concerning Spanish botanists and collectors. 



t Lasegue, A., ' Musee Botanique de Delessert,' 1845, gives the period as from 1593 to 1600. Prom this 

 work also we have gleaned much information ; and in all cases where we cite Lasegue as our authority it is in 

 connexion with this book. 



% Quatro libros de la Naturaleza y virtudes de las Plantas y Animales, que estan recevidos en el uso de 

 Medecina en la Nueva-Espana, publicado en Mejico por Ximenez en el ano 1615. 



§ Thesaurus Literaturae Botanic® omnium Gentium. 



|| Hernandez, P., Berum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus, seu Plantarum, Animalium, et Mineralium 

 Mexicanorum Historia a Nardo Antonio Keccho collecta ac in ordinem digesta. Boma, 1651. 



% Historia Plantarum Novae Hispaniae. 



** Pulteney, « Sketches of the Progress of Botany,' ii. p. 231. 



