GUSTAVE WALLIS. 



COLLECTOR IN BRAZIL, NEW GEENADA, AND VARIOUS PARTS 

 OF TROPICAL SOUTH AMERICA. 



18721874. 



GUSTAVE WALLIS was born on May 1st 1830, at Liineburg, 

 Hanover, where his father was an advocate. 



Deaf and dumb until he was six years of age, it was not till 

 1836 that he could articulate. About this time the father 

 died, leaving the mother a widow with six children. Her 

 means of support gone, she was compelled to leave Liineburg 

 and retire to Detmold, her native town. In this romantic 

 and picturesque country, surrounded by mountains and 

 forests, young Wallis spent his schooldays, and developed 

 that love of Nature and of Botany which excited in maturer 

 years such a strong desire to see foreign lands, and above all 

 the tropics. 



The youth possessed an indomitable energy, and in spite 

 of his defective speech acquired considerable proficiency in 

 foreign languages, an accomplishment which always stood 

 him in good stead during his career. 



At the age of sixteen Wallis was apprenticed to a gold- 

 smith, but, disliking the work, it was abandoned, and he 

 became apprenticed to a gardener at Detmold. 



After the term of apprenticeship had terminated he obtained 

 employment at Munich, and during this period he made 

 several excursions to the Alps, for the purpose of collecting 



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