132 ERYTHEA. 



The above descriptions are the first scientific accounts of any 

 Californiau trees, and in the above extracts there is ample room for 

 inference — had further testimony been needed — that Nee did not 

 visit California. 



The first botanist, then, to make an herbarium of Californian 

 plants which reached Europe was Thaddeus Haenke. Something 

 concerning his life may, therefore, be adventured on these pages, 

 with the thought that it will not be devoid of interest to students 

 of west American botany, for he appears to have been a man of 

 parts. 



He was born at Kreibitz, in Bohemia, on the 5th of October, 

 1761, and received his early training from an uncle, who was a 

 theologian. Later, he went to the University of Prague, where, in 

 1782, he was honored with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 

 He next began the study of medicine, but devoted most of his 

 leisure time to botany and botanical rambles. A disj)Osition 

 towards this science he owed to the professor of l)otany in the 

 university, Joseph Godfred Mikan, in whose home he now was. 

 For several years he traveled extensively in Bohemia, wrote a 

 "Florula of Sudetic," published by the Bohemian Society of 

 Sciences, studied under Jacquin, acquired intimate acquaintance 

 with all the leading scientific men of the day in his country, when, 

 in the 28th year of his age, an event happened which was to change 

 entirely the current of his life. At the "command of the Emperor 

 Joseph H" he willingly undertook service under the King of Spain 

 as one of the corps* of naturalists engaged to accompany the 

 Malaspina Expedition. He arrived at Cadiz too late to join the 

 corvettes, followed, however, in the first vessel leaving for the New 

 World, suffered shipwreck on the west coast of South America, 

 escaping only with " his Linnaeus," and finally joined Malaspina at 

 Santiago in Chile. His collections from South America, from 

 Nootka, Port Mulgrave, Monterey,^ San Bias, Acapulco, testify his 



*His official title reads thus: Fisico-Botanico, Comisionado Por. S. M. 

 Cat6lica. 



* These, as most of his plants, were published by C. B. Presl, in the 

 Reliquiaj Haenkeanae, and consisted chiefly of grasses, rushes and sedges, 

 and of the following exogens characteristic of the Californian summer and 

 autumn hills and low plains : Datisca glomerata, Zauschneria Californica 



