94 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



tude of the earth. " His curiosity," says Flourens, " held him 

 captive for many years in these regions, so rich and unexplored, 

 where he often joined the labors of the engineer with those of the 

 botanist. To him Europe owes several new plants, the heliotrope, 

 the marvel of Peru, &c, with many curious and then unknown 

 species." Here, also, should be mentioned the eminent French 

 ornithologist, Francois Levaillant, [b. 1753, d. 1824], who was a 

 native of America, and the two Mexican naturalists, also native 

 born, Jose A. Alzate, [b. in Ozumba, 1729, d. in Mexico, Feb. 2, 

 1790]. a learned botanist, and Francisco Javier Clavigero. 



Francisco Javier Clavigero, the historian of Mexico, was one 

 of the earliest of American archaeologists. Born in Vera Cruz 

 Sept. 9, 1731, the son of a Spanish scholar, he was educated at 

 the college of Puebla, entered the Society of Jesuits, and was 

 sent out as a missionary among the Indians, with whom he spent 

 thirty-six years. He learned their language, collected their tra- 

 ditions, and examined all their historical records and monuments 

 for the purpose of correcting the misrepresentations of early 

 Spanish writers. When the Society of Jesus was suppressed by 

 Spain, in 1767, Clavigero went to Italy, where he wrote his 

 " Storia Antica del Messico," printed in 1780-81. 



Clavigero was a man who, in his spirit, was fully abreast of 

 the science of his day, but whose methods of thought and argu- 

 ment were already antiquated. 



His monastic training led him to write from the standpoint of 

 a commentator rather than that of an original observer, and his 

 observations upon the animals and plants of Mexico were subor- 

 dinated in a very unfortunate manner to those of his predecessor, 

 Hernandez. In the " Dissertations," which make up the fourth 

 volume of his history, he throws aside, in the ardor of his dispute 

 with Buffon and his followers, the trammels of tradition, and 

 places upon record many facts concerning American natural his- 

 tory which had never before been referred to. He here presented a 

 list of the quadrupeds of America, the first ever printed for the en- 



