COLLECTIONS OF HAENKE AND NEE. 27 



most touching manner the enthusiasm which was characteristic of the 

 collector and observer. While thev were navigating' the Rio Mamore 

 in a canoe they discovered in a marsh bordering the river a plant so 

 marvelousl}" beautiful that Haenkc fell upon his knees in worship, 

 offering to the Author of so magnificent a creation a prayer of grateful 

 homage. He insisted on sto])ping and camping at this place and left 

 it with the greatest reluctance." This was about the 3'ear 1801. The 

 plant was in all probabilit}" the magniticent water lily afterwards 

 described as Victoi^ia amasonica. 



Haenke looked forward to returning some da^^ to Europe, l)ut he 

 was accidentally poisoned and died at Cochabama in 181T. Only a 

 small proportion of his herl)arium reached Europe, the greatest part 

 having been sent by the authorities to Lima, where it was lost. About 

 9,000 plants collected on the Malaspina expedition were sent, according- 

 to his wish, to the National ^Museum of Bohemia, at Prague. Others 

 found their way to the Ko3'al Garden at Madrid, with those of Nee. 

 Duplicates of these were sent to the University of Prague and the Musee 

 Palatin at Vienna, and about 700 species to the Royal Herl^arium at 

 Munich. It was upon the collections at Prague and the notes accom- 

 panying them that the Reliquiie Haenkeana; of Presl was based.* 



Nee, who reached Cadiz in 1794, took back with him 10,000 plants, 

 nearl}^ half of which were apparently new. His herbarium, together 

 with descriptive notes and drawings, belong to the Roval Garden at 

 ]\Iadrid. Many of his Guam plants were described in 1802 by Cava- 

 nilles;"^' among them are a number of ferns as well as of flowering- 

 plants that have not since been recognized, and no careful comparison 

 has been made between the types in Madrid and material f ronj the 

 Pacific in England. 



Notes of both Nee and Haenke are included in Malaspina's ofBcial 

 narrative, h'ing in manuscript in the archives of the Madrid hjalro- 

 graphic oflice. ]\Ialaspina shorth-^ after his return to Spain was thrown 

 into prison, suspected of revolutionary designs. The Spanish Gov- 

 ernment refused to publish his narrative, and when a map appeared 

 embodying the results of his explorations his name was not allowed to 

 appear upon it. Humboldt speaks of this great injustice with indig- 

 nation. Malaspina was an Italian by Inrth. A sketch of his life is 

 included in Amat di San Filipo's Biogratia dei viaggiatori italiani, 

 Rome, 1881. For a long time his manuscript history disappeared from 

 view and investigations concerning it were made by the Societa Geo- 

 grafica Italiana, the president of which, in his address of 1868 (Bolle- 

 tino, 1868, pp. 73-71), announces its discovery in the archives of the 

 hydrographic oflice at Madrid, and states that it is written in a great 



« A. d'Orbigny, Anuales des Sciences Naturelles, vol. 13, p. 55, 1840. 



^ See List of works. 



<' Cavanilles, Josef, Descripcion, etc. See List of works. 



