184 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
war; and thus was that grand scheme annihilated. In fact, nothing 
remains at present of those noble collections, except the above-men- 
tioned drawings—the finest I have ever seen. They are in large royal 
folio ; the size of the figures, that of life; and generally there are tri- 
plicates of each drawing: one being an outline only; another, shaded, 
is executed in Indian ink; and the third iscoloured after nature. As 
regards style and execution nearly all these drawings are perfect ; 
they amount to many hundreds. The herbarium of the Flora Peruviana, 
formed from Ruiz and Pavon’s collections, is in a better condition, and 
preserved in a separate room in the Museum. 
The number of cultivated plants in the Madrid garden very little 
exceeds 5,000 species. The catalogue,* published in 1849 by the 
three professors, at their own expense, comprises 3,780 species,—that 
is, such only as they were able to determine since the death of Rodri- 
guez, which took place in the summer of 1847. He had—it is im- 
possible to guess for what reason—removed all the labels of the 
plants! Cutanda takes much pains to increase the number of plants, 
and is particularly anxious that the Madrid garden should cultivate all 
the plants of the peninsula. As a member of the Comicion de la 
Carta geologica de Espanna (which chart, at present merely an accu- 
rate geognostic-botanical one of the province of Madrid, is to be pub- 
lished at the charge of the Government) Cutanda is obliged to under- 
take annual journeys in order to study the vegetation of the country ; 
on which occasion, he is always accompanied by the semillero, who 
collects seeds and plants for the garden. If this honest, zealous, and 
disinterested young man is long spared, the Madrid garden may be 
expected gradually to recover the rank it held in Cavanilles’s time. 
Last year the Government built a hot-house, which was hitherto en- 
tirely wanting. It is still more to be wished that a better supply of 
water could be obtained ; at present it is scarcely adequate for watering 
one-half of the very considerable area of the garden, especially in 
summer. 
What is hoped for in regard to the Madrid garden has partly 
been accomplished in that of Valencia, When the author visited it 
for the first time in 1844, it was only nominally a botanical garden, 
in which little more was cultivated than oranges, limes, roses, and 
common ornamental plants; whereas it is at present in tolerable order, 
* Catalogo de las plantas del Jardin botánico de Madrid en el anno 1849. 
