398 APPENDIX. 



at home in the realm of organic life, among Flora and Fauna, and 

 was best adapted to the observation of detail. From the mutual 

 interchange of knowledge and experience sprang that wide range 

 of observation, and completeness of investigation, by which their 

 joint labours were distinguished. In the Spanish Colonies of 

 America every German was in those days thought to be a miner, 

 and every Frenchman a doctor ; and certainly this supposition was 

 substantiated most fully in the case of Humboldt and Bonpland. 



Of the mutual esteem and devotion which these travellers so 

 heartily reciprocated, several instances have already been given. 1 It 

 will be suitable to adduce here the following entry from Humboldt 's 

 American Journal (vol. v.): * I have given to M. Elhuyar a sealed 

 letter, to be opened in the event of my death : it contains a bequest 

 to Bonpland of 50,000 francs.' 



Soon after his return from America, Bonpland, on the recom- 

 mendation of Corvisart, surgeon to the Empress Josephine, was 

 appointed by the empress, who was passionately devoted to flowers, 

 superintendent of the gardens at Malmaison and Navarre. Through 

 Humboldt's zealous interposition, he received, in addition to his 

 salary, a yearly pension of 3,000 francs, in acknowledgment of the 

 herbarium presented by him to the Jardin des Plantes. 2 



1 See pp. 278, 279, 287. 



' 2 The author received on one occasion (1858) from Humboldt the following 

 authentic summary of the plants collected by him and Bonpland : During the 

 five years spent in their travels, Humboldt and Bonpland collected from 5,800 to 

 6,000 specimens of plants. Among the 5,500 specimens of phanerogamous plants, 

 3,000 were found to be new species. The localities of all these plants, as described 

 in the ' Nova Genera et Species Plantarum in Peregrinatione ad Plagam Aequi- 

 noctialem Collectarum,' are denoted with the barometric determination of the 

 height above the sea, a detail which has never before been introduced into any 

 botanical work. The number of plants actually described during the journey 

 amounted to 4,528, and the descriptions filled six volumes three folios and three 

 quartos. These volumes were employed by the celebrated botanist Kunth, 

 Director of the Botanic Gardens at Berlin, in editing at Paris the ' Nova Genera 

 et Species.' As only about a fifth of these descriptions are from the pen of 

 Alexander von Humboldt, the volumes on the death of Professor Kunth were sent 

 by Humboldt. in acknowledgment of the indefatigable industry of his fellow- 

 traveller, to the Museum of Natural History at Paris, where they were preserved 

 as the ' property of Bonpland. The plants themselves, since the number of 

 duplicates was such as to allow of it, were divided by the travellers on their 

 arrival in Paris into three distinct herbariums ; the most complete collection was 

 retained by Bonpland, who subsequently took it out with him to Buenos Ayres. 

 A second herbarium was presented to the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, in 

 acknowledgment of which Bonpland received, as stated in the text, a yearly 

 pension of 3,000 francs ; and the third collection was placed at the disposal of 

 Alexander von Humboldt, by whom in accordance with his invariable custom of 

 reserving nothing for himself, but of presenting everything he collected, whether 



