BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 411 
lands to tolerable perfection, the establishment is given up 
to neglect and desolation. Here and there a few plants 
appear to attest its past splendour, as a magnificent bush of 
Mahonia fascicularis, more than twenty-five feet high, and in 
fine flower, with Buddlea globosa of about equal size, and 
gigantic specimens of Chamerops. This garden still affords 
a few specimens of medicinal plants to the young students ; 
but as to Botany, properly so called, no person, I believe, 
in all Valencia, pays the least attention to it. I was told of 
a physician, whose herbarium was an honour to the city, and 
I lost no time in endeavouring thus to gain some acquaint- 
ance, as I hoped, with the vegetation at least of the environs; 
but great was my disappointment in finding that this vaunted 
collection consisted entirely of garden specimens, wretched 
scraps, stitched down to paper, after a most primitive fashion. 
t was amusing to hear the ancient housekeeper, who dis- 
played this precious Aorfus siccus, and kept continually assur- 
ing me that [ had there, before my eyes, “ todas las yerbas 
del mundo,” 
(To be continued.) 
Notice of the Life and Labours of X. Gu1t. 1. EgM1N, M.D., Assist- 
ant Naturalist at the Museum of Natural History of Paris, 
Member of the Philomatic Society, &c., by M. A. LasEGUE.* 
A fresh loss was added, on the 15th January, 1842, to 
those which science has recently had to deplore, in the death 
of M. Guillemin, who, though still in the prime of his days, 
closed, at Montpellier, a life which had been successfully 
devoted to the study of the Natural Sciences, and of Botany 
in particular. Itis often alleged that we only know the 
value of our friends when they are taken from us ; but those 
who prized M. Guillemin can hardly allow that his merits 
required this melancholy proof of their worth. 
Antoine Guillemin, (not Jean-Baptiste Antoine, as even 
* Since published in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles. 
