4 MARTIUS ON THK BOTANY OF BRAZIL. 



Marcgrav and Fr. Post. They are preserved in the Royal 

 Library at Berlin, under the title of " Liber Principis;" and 

 through the kindness of Messrs Ehrenberg and Von Schlech- 

 tendal, Dr Martius is in possession of copies which have ma- 

 terially assisted him in determining some few, yet apocryphal, 

 species of plants. 



2. Upon the expulsion of the Dutch from Pernambuco, 

 Bahia and Ceara, the whole country returned again under 

 ihe dominion of Portugal, and the ignorance of this people 

 regarding its Natural History was so deplorable, that the 

 learned Padre Vieira, one of the greatest pulpit orators of 

 the Portuguese nation, and no mean classical writer, declared 

 his opinion that all the spices of the East Indies grew wild, 

 or were naturalized in the Brazils. A century now elapsed 

 before the smallest knowledge of the Flora of the country 

 was obtained. The first who deserved any merit on this 

 account, was Dominicus Vandelli of Padua, who was called, 

 by the intellectual and powerful minister Pombal, to Coim- 

 bra, and afterwards to Lisbon, there to teach chemistry and 

 botany. Many of his pupils sent him plants from Brazil, 

 which were partly published by himself, (some were received 

 by Linnaeus), and they were deposited in the Natural His- 

 tory Cabinet at Lisbon, till, after the attack of the French 

 troops under Junot, they were carried off and placed in the 

 Jardin des Plantes at Paris. The most active correspon- 

 dent of Vandelli was, his pupil Vellozo, born at Minas, a 

 Jesuit, and probably the same who is called by Vandelli, Dr 

 Joaquim Velloso de Miranda. From him were received ac- 

 cording to the authority of Senr. Joam Gomez, (Director of 

 the Garden at Rio de Janeiro), most of the species of plants 

 from the provinces of Rio de Janeiro and Minas, which 

 Vandelli published in a very indifferent manner in his 

 " Fasciculus* Plantarum cum novis Generibus et Speciebus," 



* This "Fasciculus" appeared at Lisbon, in 4to, in 1774; and his 

 " specimen" in a " Diccionario dos Termoa technicos de Historia Naturel, 

 ^•c. Coimbra, 17^8," and also in another separate form. It is exceed- 

 ingly rare. Dr Martius saw it onlv once in Brazil. Buth are known to 



