382 POEPPIG’S JOURNEY, 
Journals, with descriptions made on the spot, of 2300 species 
of plants—others on Zoology, (partly printed in Frontier) 
others containing remarks and researches of a more general 
kind—200 sheets of drawings, among which are all the 
Chilian Orchidee, and the most splendid Peruvian forms; 
also the materials for a Monograph of the Tropical American 
Aroidee, (these of colossal dimensions,) have safely reached 
Europe and surround me at the present moment. The 
Travels are printing—the first number of my Nova Species 
Plantarum, edited in company with Endlicher of Vienna, 
will also soon be out, and I send a fragment of it along with 
the plants. 'Thus you see how much a man may work, 
provided he has nothing else to do but to work. Though 
surrounded with far greater facilities, I do not accomplish 
half so much here as ! used to do in the heart of the 
primeeval forests of the Amazones, whither, however, I should 
not like to return after all, now that I have learned rightly 
to appreciate the vaunted beauty of tropical climates, on 
which many a sweet youth has penned the well-turned period, 
without having ever quitted the precincts of his paternal 
roof; and of which one is condemned to hear so much non- 
sensical talk as goes nigh to turn the stomach even of so *old 
a voyager’ as myself. You see I am not likely to be one of 
those who *bepraise, after the common accepted fashion, 
the warm countries, partly because, like all other northern 
animals, the writers feel a secret impulse towards the south, 
and partly because they may calculate how much cheaper it 
is to live in a country where no fuel is required, whether 
wood or coal. A propos, is not this a matter worthy the 
consideration of the literati of our frosty Germany, who are 
generally not blessed with much store of worldly goods? 
The finest country I ever saw, and where really all seems to 
be united which a being of moderate wishes might desire to 
possess, is no doubt the republic of Chili; but certainly not 
Chili of Valparaiso. Our friend Mr. used to be very 
bitter and unjust against that country, and we often quar- 
relled about it, but he will have learned better after living 
