12 ('OXTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



charge of them. The hitter apparentl}^ extracted from the manu- 

 scripts the portion which he believed would be niost useful to tlie 

 medical profession, for it Is evident that most of the matter ht 

 selected was of this sort. Some doubts have been raised re<rarding 

 Recchi's competency to perform the task assigned him: nevertheless 

 except for his connection with the matter it is improbable that any 

 portion of Hernandez's work would ever have been published. 

 Recchi's manuscript, however, met with no better treatment than the 

 original one, for it too remained unpublished, and was taken later by 

 its compiler to Naples. After Recchi's death it came into the posses- 

 sion of his nephew, from whom it was purchased by Prince Federico 

 Cesi, a devoted student of natural history. By him it was turned 

 over to the Accademia dei Lyncei, whose members undertook the 

 arrangement and annotation of the manuscript and finally prepared 

 it for publication. Through the Spanish ambassador at Rome finids 

 for printing were secured, and the work of Hernandez, thus modified, 

 was at last given to the public. There is considerable imcertainity 

 regarding the actual date of publication, but the date of couipletion 

 is believed to have been 1651.^ An abridged edition appeared as 

 early as 1628, and extracts had been published by various authors at 

 still earlier dates. An edition of the work prepared by Ortega was 

 issued at Madrid in 1780. 



Hernandez's work is of great historic interest because of the fact 

 that it is the first extensive publication dealing Avith the botanical 

 features of Mexico. It contains a great mass of information regard- 

 ing the plants of that countrvt some of which, relating to practices 

 of the early inhabitants, had been forgotten before other botanists 

 visited the region. X large part of the observations relate to medic- 

 inal properties of plants, and these are interesting even if not of 

 much practical importance. It is unfortunate that the identity of 

 many of Hernandez's plants must remain a matter of conjecture, be- 

 cause his descriptions are usually drawn in such general terms, and 

 the illustrations accompanying them are often equally vague. The 

 book, however, will ahvays possess an atti-action for those interested 

 in herb lore if not for the taxonomist. It must be remembered that 

 the work, as we have it, is not that of Hernandez himself, but only 

 a compilation or an extract, and that the original uumuscript if it 



'Reruni medicariun Novae Hispaniae thesaurus, seu plantaruni anliniiliuni. 

 iniiicralium incxicjiiioruni historia ex Franrisco HcM-ni'inili'z, iiovi orhis uKMlici 

 priniarii, relationihu.s in ipsa niexcana urhc <()nscM-ii)tis a Nardo Atitonio Reecho 

 collecta ac in ordinem disesta : a .Toanne TornMitio, Joanne Fabro et Fabio 

 Colunina Lynceis nntis et additionibus illustrata. Ciii nfcessere alicpiot ex 

 Principis Federici Caesii fronlispiciis theatri nahiralis i»li.vt<»sopliit*ae tabula*' 

 una ciini quani iilm-iniis ironibus. Pp. l-n.W-(-l-00. ill. Homo. 1(;.'')1. 



