122 APPENDIX. 



cited, together with the various excursions made from the main routes, and the names 

 and altitudes of all the principal localities, temperatures, &c. 



Bonpland was the actual collector of the plants. He was born in 1773 at La 

 Eochelle, where his father practised as a doctor *. The son was educated for the same 

 profession, and on going to Paris to complete his studies he there became acquainted 

 with Alex. v. Humboldt in 1798. Subsequently they undertook their famous expe- 

 dition to America, which is described by Humboldt under the title ( A Journey to 

 the Equinoctial Eegions of the New World.' Bonpland collected more than 6000 

 species of plants during the expedition, which he afterwards presented to the Museum 

 at Paris. Napoleon, in gratitude, awarded him a pension, and he was made Steward 

 to the Empress Josephine at Malmaison.^ In 1816 he decided to settle in America, 

 and went to Buenos Ayres, where he was made Professor of Natural History. After 

 some time he resolved to undertake a journey over the Pampas, to Santa Fe, Gran 

 Chaco, and Bolivia, for the purpose of further exploring the Andes ; but he was stopped 

 by Dr. Francia, then Dictator of Paraguay, and kept a prisoner at Santa Maria for more 

 than nine years, till 1831. On his release he settled at San Borja in Corrientes, 

 and devoted himself to cultivating his estates and to making short excursions from 

 time to time into La Plata &c. for natural-history purposes. In 1849 he received the 

 Cross of the Legion of Honour, was made Head Director of the Natural-History 

 Museum of Corrientes, and died at San Borja in 1858, leaving his collections, books, 

 and manuscripts to the French Marine Ministry. 



An interval of twenty years elapsed between the visit of Humboldt and Bonpland 

 and the next Europeans on our list who visited Mexico for the express purpose of 

 investigating its natural history. In point of date, however, a native of Mexico 

 occupies the next place. 



Juan Lexarza, a native of Valladolid, in Michoacan, Mexico, was born in 1785 and 

 after he had grown up he became acquainted with Pablo La Llave, a Spanish priest, 

 distinguished for his knowledge of botany, who gave him his first instructions in this 

 science. In 1824-25 they published conjointly a number of new genera of Mexican 

 plants, mostly named after eminent contemporaries, and a number of orchids, chiefly 

 natives of the State of Michoacan ; Lexarza being the principal author, and the sole 

 author of a new classification of orchids, based upon their seeds and pollen. This is 

 reproduced in the ' Bonplandia ' for 1856, p. 26. Lexarza gave promise of making an 

 accomplished botanist, but he attempted too much and was cut off young. Several of 

 his orchids have not been identified in consequence of the descriptions being imperfect. 

 David Don mentions f having received a small collection of dried plants from 

 Don Pablo La Llave, by which he became acquainted with the genera of Com- 



* Bonplandia, 1854, p. 259. 



f Transactions of the Linnean Society, xvi. p. 170. 



