284 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



' I think that, with the help of Bonpland, I have been able 

 to make very complete diagnoses, but we do not venture to 

 decide as yet as to how many new genera we possess. We 

 have an immense collection of palms and grasses, of Melastomsc, 

 Pipers, Malpighise and Cortex Angosturas (bark), which is a 

 new genus, differing from Cinchona, as well as of the Cipura 

 Csesalpina of Auble. . . . 



'I am quite resolved to withstand every temptation to 

 publish any of our researches during the five or six years that 

 my journey may occupy. I feel convinced that on our return 

 to Europe we shall find that two-thirds of our supposed new 

 genera and species have been already described. Should this 

 be the case, a fresh representation and description of these 

 plants as they grow in such remote regions will not be without 

 value in a scientific point of view. 



6 What an infinite store of plants are treasured up in that 

 wonderful tract of country lying between the Orinoco and 

 the Amazon, through which I have travelled 6,443 (sic) miles 

 in a district abounding with impenetrable forests, and peopled 

 with apes of species hitherto unknown ! We were scarcely 

 able to collect specimens of a tenth of the plants we met with. 

 I am new perfectly convinced of a fact concerning which I 

 was exceedingly incredulous when I was in England although 

 I saw reason to suspect it from the herbariums of Ruiz, Pavon, 

 Xees, and Henken that we are not as yet acquainted with 

 three-fifths of the whole of the existing species of plants ! 

 The fruits are truly wonderful ; on our return journey we sent 

 off specimens to France and Madrid. What a spectacle is 

 presented by the various orders of palms as they rear their 

 heads among the impenetrable forests of the Rio Negro ! . . . 



' But alas ! we grieve almost to tears when we open our cases 

 of plants ! Our herbariums meet with the same sad fate which 

 called forth the lamentations of Sparmann, Banks, Swartz, and 

 Jacquin. ' The extreme humidity of the South American 

 climate, together with the great luxuriance of the vegetation, 

 which renders it almost impossible to procure leaves which are 

 wholly matured, has occasioned the destruction of more than a 

 third of our collection. We are daily discovering new insects, 

 destructive to paper and plants. Camphor, turpentine, tar, 



