114 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



directed to draw up a report regarding the class of observations 

 on natural history whicli he proposed should be carried out dur- 

 ing the expedition. It suggested observations in three kingdoms 

 of Nature, animal, vegetable, and mineral, to which was added a 

 fourth class of physical and meteorological observations. " The 

 class of quadrupeds," he said, "being subordinate to man, that 

 being should always first attract the attention of the traveler 

 naturalist. . . . The first shade after man is that of the anthro- 

 pomorphic animals or apes with a human figure, of which it 

 would be desirable to know all the series, because they establish 

 an insensible passage from man to the quadrupeds." 



Before leaving Paris for his voyage, Commerson made his 

 will, in which he provided for the endowment as a Prix de Vertu 

 of a medal of two hundred livres, bearing on its obverse face an 

 inscription signifying that it was a reward for the practice of vir- 

 tue, and on the reverse one signifying that the unworthy " P. C." 

 had dedicated it. It was very like the Montyon prizes, afterward 

 established and carried into effect. Having set out from Roche- 

 fort, after considerable delay, the expedition reached the mouth 

 of the Rio de la Plata m May, 1767, and remained for some time 

 at Montevideo to repair damages suffered from a storm. Here 

 Commerson was astonished at the superfluity of horses and cattle, 

 and wrote to his brother-in-law, further : " I have not failed to 

 reap a fruitful harvest of plants, birds, and fishes, and I am 

 anxious that nothing should escape me ; but what can I do ? I 

 am neither an Argus nor a Briareus ; a single day's hunting, fish- 

 ing, or even a walk places me in the embarrassment of Midas, 

 under whose hands everything became golden. Ofttimes I do not 

 know when or how to begin, and I have scarcely time to eat or 

 drink, so that my excellent friend, our good captain, is obliged to 

 forbid my lamp being kept alight after midnight, because he has 

 foreseen that I should deprive myself of sleep all night to gain 

 sufficient time to examine all which is before me. The keen ad- 

 miration which seizes me in viewing so many varieties, most of 

 them new and unknown to science, has forced me to become a 

 draughtsman." 



From Montevideo the vessel, L'Etoile, proceeded to Rio 

 Janeiro. In one of his excursions Commerson noticed some trees 

 having a rosy mauve or magenta tint, which further examination 

 showed him was given them by their brilliantly colored bracts. 

 They were trees of a new genus, which he named Bougainvillea, 

 after his commander. The genus has become familiar in conserva- 

 tories. Returning to the Rio de la Plata, Commerson declined an 

 invitation from the viceroy, Don Francisco Bucarelli, to go with 

 him across the Andes to Chili and Peru. Proceeding onward 

 again in November and December, 1707, the expedition sailed into 



