BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 399 
BossrEn.— Spanish Botany and Voyage from Marseilles to 
Valencia.— (Continued from page 398.) 
For many years I had planned to visit Spain. Besides 
the attractions of its sweet and serene sky, its picturesque 
character and that peculiarity of aspect which still belongs to 
both men and things in this lovely land, I had a particular 
interest in making this journey; for I hoped to obtain many 
new and curious results from a scientific investigation of its 
productions. 
In common with the other natural sciences, Botany is now 
at a low ebb in Spain, its decline coinciding precisely with 
the epoch when this study received its greatest impulse in 
the other parts of Europe. Towards the close of the last 
and the first few years of the present century, Spain occupied 
her proper and high place among the nations, in respect to 
Science; her vegetable productions, in particular, which had 
been already investigated by Clusius, Barrelier, Antoine, and 
Bernard de Jussieu and Tournefort, were then the object of 
ardent study to Lófling, Quer, Ortega, and the learned Cava- 
nilles: several magnificent establishments, almost wholly due 
to the munificence of Charles III., had been founded, as the 
Botanie Garden of Madrid and several others in the pro- 
vinces; and expeditions, planned on a gigantic scale, were 
despatched to various parts of America, which powerfully 
contributed to make known the natural history of that 
continent. All this has been interrupted by the fearful 
Struggle of independence, that noblest claim to glory for the 
Spaniards ; many and painful have been the years that it 
has marked, but great will be the benefits that are yet to 
result, and which will be reaped and appreciated from those 
Serins of liberty and civilization that they have produced. 
t the restoration of Ferdinand, many years of peace 
ensued, during which the sciences began to be once more 
studied. Don Mariano Lagasca, a pupil of Cavanilles, 
published his Nova Genera and Species, and, seconded by 
several scholars who sent him valuable materials from the 
Se provinces, he aimed at compiling a Spanish Flora, 
2. H 
