MEMOIR OF PALLAS. 53 



In I78I, he began a work which he meant parti- 

 cularly to dedicate to the insects of Russia {Icones 

 Insectorum^ &c.), although only two numbers ap- 

 peared. But it is quite impossible here to enume- 

 rate in detail the numerous quadrupeds, birds, 

 reptiles, fishes, mollusca, worms, and zoophytes, of 

 which he at this time published the original descrip- 

 tion. The simple enumeration of the memoirs which 

 he sent to the various academies to which he be- 

 longed, would occupy much room. He was not 

 even alarmed at the prodigious project of a general 

 history of the animals and plants of the Russian 

 empire; and he had really made great progress in 

 its execution, although the labour must have pre- 

 sented innumerable difficulties. 



Pallas's circumstances, perhaps, still more than 

 his tastes, contributed to make him a devoted 

 botanist. Having in 1781 published " A Cata- 

 logue of the Plants in Mr Demidofs Garden at 

 Moscow," {Enumeration Plant.^ &c.), the Empress, 

 whose love of the magnificent was flattered with 

 the idea of a " Flora Ritssica^* directed all the her- 

 baria which had been collected by previous travellers 

 to be sent him, and engaged him to undertake the 

 work, she becoming responsible for the expense. 

 Pallas himself had made very considerable collec- 

 tions, and the work promised to extend widely our 

 knowledge of the vegetable kingdom. Two volumes 

 only, however, appeared, which contain principally 

 trees and shrubs ; and this because in Russia, as in 

 most other kingdoms, a change of ministry puts a 



