15+ BOTANICAL NEWS. 
yond eighty years of age, I accept with gratitude the honourable position 
placed at my disposal ; and I pledge myself to employ all my powers in ful- 
filling the numerous duties exacted by an institution calculated to be so useful 
to the people of Corrientes, to whom, as well as to your Excellency, the honoured 
founder of this museum, I owe numberless obligations. 
" c The greatest richness of this province, known up to the present time, exists 
in its vegetable kingdom. In the Argentine Republic, as well as in Paraguay, 
and the Banda Oriental, I have collected a herbarium of more then three thou- 
sand plants ; and I have studied their properties with the most careful atten- 
tion. This work, in which I have been employed since 1816, will be very 
useful when I come to arrange our vegetable collection ; and I hope in a short 
time to place in the Museum of Corrientes a herbarium that will be as useful 
as your Excellency need desire, towards encouraging in the minds of your 
fellow-citizens an ambition to study the natural products of their country. 
" ' As to the mineral kingdom, there is no doubt that with the advance of time 
our mines of silver and gold will be worked with much advantage, when we 
have a more numerous population, and labour is carried on according to better 
rules than those which now exist. Although quicksilver was discovered many 
years ago in the immediate neighbourhood of La Cruz, still the predecessors 
of your Excellency have neglected the glory of utilizing this metal, which is so 
useful for amalgamation with gold and silver. It seems to me desirable to 
explore, as soon as possible, the three small hills which overtop the town of 
La Cruz, for there may be discovered the fountain of this quicksilver. If, as 
I hope, we can ascertain with accuracy the position of this mine, it will prove 
an invaluable treasure to serve for the amalgamation of the numerous products 
of gold and silver that at the present time are being worked with so much zeal 
all through the Argentine Republic. 
" ' The animal kingdom is very abundant in the province, but as yet we have 
only a superficial knowledge of it. Therefore much interesting information 
can be elicited, as well as a good collection formed, by an assiduous study o 
this branch of knowledge. — God bless your Excellency, etc., 
u ' AMADO BONPLAtfD.' 
" The statements in the foregoing letter, that the writer was eighty years 
and three months old when he accepted the post of director-in-chief of tha 
Corrientes Museum, and that he had collected a herbarium of more than o 
plants, made me very anxious to know something of the result of his laDoi 
up here. I found that his name is remembered ; that's all. No one m ° 
rientes from whom I inquired on the subject knows the former locus in 9. uo 
the museum, although it was established only twelve years ago, and ot 
whereabouts of Bonpland's collection they are equally ignorant. Such is 
in South America !" 
Botanical Society o* Edinbtjegh — Thursday, April ll/A.— Isaac Anc 
son-Henry, Esq., President, in the chair. Professor Balfour recorded the 
deaths of the following members of the Society, which had taken place since 
last meeting :— 1. John Stewart, P.E.S.E., Esq., of Nateby Hall, Lancashire. 
2. Prideaux John Selby, Esq., of Twisel, Northumberland, the well-known 
