NATURE 



[February I, 1894 



beautifully situated in a level plain about 1200 feet above 

 the sea, and almost entirely surrounded by forest-clad 

 mountains of moderate height, from which abundant 

 streams descend through narrow ravines, offering in 

 every direction a rich harvest for the enthusiastic botanist. 

 Here Spruce remained for nearly two years, exploring the 

 country for twenty op thirty miles in every direction, 

 occasionally remaining weeks at a time in the more pro- 

 mising mountain localities. Rich collections of all orders 

 of plants were here obtained, especially of ferns and of 

 his favourite groups the mosses and hepatics, while on 

 the mountains — though only 5000 to 6000 feet in eleva- 

 tion, many north-temperate genera, such as Ranunculus, 

 Rubus, Stellaria, and many others, made their first 

 appearance. 



In March, 1857, he left Tarapoto for the Andes of 

 Ecuador by way of the Upper Amazon and its tributary, 

 the Pastasa, reaching Canelos by a northern branch, 

 the Bobonasa, and thence through the forest to Banos. 

 On the way he had to cross the river Topo by bamboo 

 bridges, constructed afresh by every traveller from rock 

 to rock across the broad mountain torrent. The stream, 

 however, was in flood, and he had to wait four days 

 before the bridge could be constructed, and then 

 the water was so high and the passage so dangerous 

 that most of his baggage — books, manuscripts, micro- 

 scope, &c. — had to be left behind under a thatch of 

 leaves till they could be sent for, his party of sixteen per- 

 sons being in danger of starvation had they waited longer. 

 After reaching Banos, the packages were sent for, and 

 recovered without injury. During his enforced stay on 

 the banks of the Topo, he had found the forest so rich in 

 plants — especially in his favourite hepatics — that after 

 some weeks he returned there in order to obtain a more 

 complete series of its botanical treasures, and again had 

 the greatest difficulty and risk in passing the flooded 

 river, of which he declares that the only pleasant recol- 

 lection he retains is of the new and strange hepaticae 

 which he collected on its banks. 



After some months at Baiios, he devoted more than 

 three years to the continuous exploration of the forests 

 and higher mountains of Ecuador, visiting in turn Tun- 

 guragua. El Altar, Guayrapata, Azuay, Pichincha, and 

 Chimborazo, but devoting most time to the first named. 

 In the year i860 he was commissioned by Mr. Clement 

 Markham, on behalf of the Indian Government, to 

 procure seeds and young plants of the Cinchona 

 sticdrudra, one of the species which produces the 

 best quinine, in order to establish plantations of 

 this precious tree in the Nilghiries. For this pur- 

 pose he settled himself in the forests on the western 

 slope of Chimborazo, where this species is found between 

 the heights of 3500 and 7000 feet above the sea-level. 

 Assisted by Mr. Robert Cross, a gardener sent for the 

 purpose of taking charge of the plants on the voyage to 

 India, he collected abundance of ripe seeds and raised a 

 quantity of young plants, all of which arrived safely, and 

 helped to form those fine plantations which now supply 

 an abundance of the valuable drug. He also wrote an 

 elaborate report on the Cinchona forests, their vegetation, 

 and the mode of collection and preparation of the bark, 

 which is considered to be one of the best works of its 

 kind that has ever appeared. 



This expedition, undertaken and completed under the 

 pressure of almost continual suffering, was the conclu- 

 sion of Spruce's labours in South America. So long as 

 he had remained in the warm equable climate of the 

 equatorial plains his health had been better than when 

 in England, and appeared to be fairly re-established, 

 notwithstanding much privation and occasional attacks 

 of fever. He suffered, however, from chronic diarrhoea ; 

 and the extremes of temperature and of moisture in the 

 forests and mountains, having frequently to wade for hours 

 in ice-cold water, and exposure to the severe and change- 



NO. 1266, VOL. 49] 



able climate of the high Andes, which, as Mr. Whymper 

 assures us, is the most detestable in the world, brought 

 on an attack of some obscure malarial disease which 

 rendered all further exertion impossible, and led to com- 

 plications which rendered the remainder of his life that 

 of a confirmed invalid. Under medical advice he re- 

 moved to the hot and dry sea coast, remaining there for 

 two years in the vain expectation of a recovery sufficient 

 to enable him to extend yet further his botanical ex- 

 plorations. 



All hope of renewed health being given up, he re- 

 turned to England in 1864. After a few months in 

 London, he went to live at Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, in 

 order to be near his correspondent, Mr. William Mitten, 

 who had undertaken to describe the whole of his new 

 South American mosses. After remaining there two or 

 three years, in varying conditions of health, he deter- 

 mined to remove to Yorkshire, where a cottage was 

 offered him on the Castle Howard estate, and where his 

 slender means would enable him to command greater 

 comforts than elsewhere. This was rendered necessary by 

 the loss of a large part of the money derived from the sales 

 of his collections, owing to his having placed it at 

 interest in a commercial house in Ecuador, which, un- 

 fortunately, became bankrupt. He was granted a small 

 Government pension in recognition of his services in 

 regard to the establishment of the Indian Cinchona 

 plantations and his complete incapacity for any further 

 remunerative work, and on this and the small remnant 

 of his property he was able to live in some com- 

 fort, though with the very greatest economy. He resided 

 first at Welburn and afterwards at Coneysthorpe, both 

 small villages situated near Malton and in the immediate 

 vicinity of the noble park of Castle Howard. Here he 

 lived the life of a confirmed invalid, rarely of late years 

 leaving the house, keeping in a room of uniform warmth 

 and subjecting himself to a rigid system of diet. By 

 these precautions he prolonged his life to the ripe age of 

 seventy-six, and then only succumbed to an attack of 

 influenza, from which his much enfeebled system was 

 unable to rally. 



During the twenty-five years of his secluded life in 

 Yorkshire he was always occupied with some botanical 

 work, although for much of the time he could only write 

 or use his microscrope while reclining on a couch. His 

 more important works during this period were his 

 " Palmas Amazonics," forming vol. xi. of the botanical 

 series of the Journal of the Linnean Society, and his 

 " Hepaticce Amazonicae et Andinse," in the Transactions 

 of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 1885. During the 

 last few years he published many papers on new Hepa- 

 ticae, both American and European, and carried on a 

 considerable correspondence with students of that group 

 in all parts of the world, by whom he was looked up to as 

 one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of living authori- 

 ties in their favourite study. 



Having had the pleasure of Dr. Spruce's acquaintance 

 from the time when he reached Para in 1849— an acquain- 

 tance whichsoon ripened into friendship during the many 

 days spent together in various parts of the Amazon and 

 Rio Negro, in London, at Hurstpierpoint, and during 

 several visits to him at Welburn and Coneysthorpe— a 

 few words descriptive of his appearance and character 

 may not be out of place. Richard Spruce was tall and 

 dark, with fine features of a somewhat southern cast, 

 courteous and dignified in manner, but with a fund of 

 quiet humour which made him a most delightful com- 

 panion. He possessed in a marked degree the faculty of 

 order, which manifested itself in the unvarying neatness 

 of his dress, his beautifully regular handwriting, and the 

 orderly arrangement of all his surroundings. W^hether 

 in a native hut on the Rio Negro, or in his little cottage 

 in Yorkshire, his writing materials, his books, his micro- 

 scope, his herbaria, his stores of food and clothing, all 



