48 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



of the Revolution came the reaction, and seeing no prospect of 

 early amelioralion of his prospects, he sent in his resignation as 

 Director of the Gevverbeschule, which was accepted 3rd January, 

 1851. 



He embarked on the brig ' Bonito ' at Hamburg, and after a 

 voyage of 130 days reached Valparaiso on 4th December, 1851 ; 

 earlv the next year he continued his journey to Yaldivia. During 

 the long voyage he had been busy ou a volume of Conch ology, 

 which he brought to a conclusion when in the neighbourhood of 

 Cape Horn. At first, his prospects were not brilliant, the Republic 

 was torn by civil war, his brother's estate was in utter confusion, 

 and, to crown all, Bernard Philippi, at that time Governor of the 

 Maghellanes, was murdered by the Patagonians. 



In spite of these hindrances, E. A. Philippi found himself in a 

 rich place for collections of all kinds ; he climbed the volcano 

 Osorno, and thence obtained his first peep at the vegetation of the 

 Southern Cordilleras. He reported his travels to the University 

 at Santiago, and shortly afterwards, in October 1853, he was 

 called to that university as Professor of Natural History and 

 Director of the National Museum, the beginning of a residence 

 there which exceeded half a century. He had scarcely taken up 

 his duties in Santiago, when he w as commissioned to travel over 

 and report upon the desert of Atacama ; in this expedition he 

 was the leader, and his special share was to observe the vegetation 

 of that high and little-known region. He published his new 

 species in the volumes of 'Linnsea' from 1857 to 1864, but the 

 official account of his journey was issued in 1860, as ' Reise 

 durch die Wiiste Atacama,' in German and Spanish ; an appendix 

 formed part, entitled ' Florula Atacamensis, sen Enumeratio Planta- 

 rum quas in itinere per Desertum Atacamense observavit R. A. 

 Philippi. Halis, I860,' a quarto volume of 62 pages and 6 plates. 

 During the following years he was fully occupied in superintending 

 the Museum, lecturing and travelling on behalf of the Government. 

 In 1874 he resigned his Professorship, and in 1897 he quitted his 

 post at the Museum in favour of his son Friedrich. His botanic 

 publications amount to 98, the latest dated 1901 ; his zoological 

 publications on Mollusca, Coleoptera, Bii'ds, and Pishes, recent 

 and fossil, are probably as many. Most of his detached botanic 

 papers were printed in German journals or the ' Anales ' of the 

 Santiago University ; during the last ten years of his authorship, 

 he described many plants, which later botanists consider as forms 

 rather than species, a fault apt to be committed by naturalists who 

 have been restricted in their range, unchecked by reference to large 

 and world-wide collections. His health remained good to a very 

 advanced age, though hearing and sight became affected. He out- 

 lived his wife and seven of his nine children ; in his adopted 

 country he occupied an honoured station apart from all others, and 

 his decease last year has been followed by two biographies, from 

 which a condensed account was drawn up by Dr. K. Reiche, inthe 



