RICHARD PBARCE. 

 COLLECTOR IN CHILI, PERU AND BOLIVIA. 

 18591866. 



THE name of this collector is indissolubly connected with the 

 history of the Tuberous Begonia, for it was to his energy and 

 daring as a traveller that we are indebted for the introduction 

 of the early species from Bolivia and Peru. 



Richard Pearce was born at Stoke Devonport, and was first 

 employed in the nursery of Mr. Pontey in the town of 

 Plymouth, where he stayed till about the year 1858, when he 

 entered the nursery at Mount Radford, near Exeter. 



It appears by an agreement drawn up between James 

 Veitch & Son, of the Mount Radford Nursery, Exeter, and 

 Richard Pearce, -in February 1859, that the latter agreed to 

 go out to South America for three years as collector of plants, 

 seeds, land-shells and other objects of Natural History. 



Pearce was instructed to proceed to Valparaiso in South 

 America, and collect in Chili and Patagonia. His particular 

 attention was directed to the collection of seeds of Libocedrus 

 tetragona, at that time supposed to be the tree which 

 produced the famous Alerze timber ; the Lapageria rosea and 

 L. alba ; the Chilian Pine (Araucaria imbricata), and other 

 hardy trees and shrubs ; secondly, to procure such plants as 

 require a greenhouse temperature ; and thirdly, Orchidaceae 

 and stove and greenhouse flowering plants. 



Pearce carried out these instructions, and besides the above- 



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