Letter, from M. HwnloUt to C. Delamlres, 171 



^ngat, where Condamine's chart begins, and to connect 

 thtse points with the coast. La Condajiiine was able to 

 determine the longitude only ot" the mouth of the Kapa : 

 fime-keepers were not then in existence, so that the longi- 

 tude of these countries requires a great many changes. INIy 

 chronometer by Louis Btrthoud does wonders ; as 1 see by 

 makuig observations irmi time to time on the first satellite, 

 and comparing point for point my differences of meridian 

 ^ith lho;e louud during the expedition of M. Fidalgo, who 

 )by order of the king performed trigonometrical operations 

 from (^'umana to Carthagcna. 



.From the river Aniazon we crossed the Andes at the 

 irtuies of Hualgayoc, wliich produce a million of piastres 

 per annum, ancl where the mine of gray argentiferous cop- 

 per is lound at the height of Q065 toises. We descended 

 by Casamasca (where in the palace of Atahualpa I deline- 

 ated the arches of the Peruvian vaults) to Truxilla, pro- 

 ceeding thence by the deserts of the coast of the South 

 Sea to Lima, where for one-half of the yea;:^lic^ heavens 

 are obscured by thick vapours. I hastened to.Liii^a, that I 

 plight observe there the transit of Mercury oii.J^Ilv pth of 

 !Kovember 1S02. ' ■'■■ / 



Our collections of plants, and the drawings w hich I made 

 in regard to the anatomy of genera, agreeably to tlie ideas 

 •communicated to me by Jussieu in conversations in the 

 Society of Natural History, have greatly increased by the 

 riches which we found in the province of Quito, at X^oxa^ 

 at the river Amazon, and in the Cordilleras of Peru. \\'c 

 found a great many of the plants seen by Joseph de Jussieu ; 

 t'uch as the lloqua ajfinis, the gnilli/jae, and others. We 

 have a new species oi' j/miaa which is ch.arming, coUitluy 

 several passifiores, and the lorunthus in a tree of sixty feet 

 of height. We arc particularly rich in palms and grami- 

 neous plants, on which C. Eonpland has made a very ex- 

 tensive work. We have at present 3784 very complete de-. 

 scriptions in Latin, and nearly a third more of plants in 

 herbals which for want of time we have not been able to 

 describe. Of every vegetable we can indicate the rock 

 where it resides, and the height in toises at \\ hich it grows ; 

 so that in our manuscripts will be found very correct ma- 

 terials for the geography of plants. To do still better, I 

 and Bonpland have often descr bed the some plant F^pa- 

 ratcly. But two-thirds and more of the desi riptions belong 

 to' the assiduity of Bonpland alone, whose zeal and devo- 

 tion for the Kcicnces cannot be too much admired. Jussieu, 

 Pcilbniainetj and Loiiiarck, have in him f'.'.nued a j)upil 



wlio 



