Life in La Plata 245 



pensioner of the state in recognition of his learning and 

 achievements, and he was a prime favorite of the Em- 

 press Josephine, who in her retirement amused herself 

 by endeavoring to grow the plants of the tropics from 

 seeds which Bonpland had brought back with him. 

 At the Restoration he forsook France, and, having 

 been offered the Chair of the Natural Sciences in the 

 University of Buenos Aires in 1816, he took up his 

 home in the latter city. While conducting a scientific 

 expedition on the upper waters of the Rio Parana he 

 was seized by the Dictator Francia, who at that time 

 was the supreme ruler of Paraguay, and held in captiv- 

 ity for over ten years. When finally released in 1831 

 he returned to Buenos Aires, and subsequently, after 

 having resided in various places for brief periods both 

 in Uruguay and Argentina, died in Corrientes, where his 

 remains rest until this day. One of those who came 

 after Bonpland was the great German, naturalist, 

 Hermann Burmeister. After having filled professorships 

 in the Universities of Berlin and Halle, and having 

 represented the latter University in the first National 

 Assembly in 1848, and served as a member of the first 

 Prussian Reichstag, he went to South America to study 

 and explore. Having spent a couple of years in Brazil, 

 he returned to Germany and published a work in two 

 volumes upon the fauna of that empire. In 1861 he 

 accepted the Directorship of the Museum in Buenos 

 Aires, and continued to hold the office until his death 

 in 1891. To him we owe a great deal of our knowledge 

 of the natural history of Argentina, and he was one of 

 the first to write extensively upon the extinct fauna of 

 the Tertiary and Quaternary ages in South America. 

 His associate and successor was Dr. Carlos Berg, a man 

 of great attainments, who was particularly well k 



