B O T A N V. 



Hiitory. 



Jeo. For- 



tinder the title of Icnnrs Plan/arum Japonicarum, 

 which we trust he will continue. 



If we proceed now to direct our attention for a 

 little to the western hemisphere, it will be found, that 

 though much remains still to be done, endeavours of 

 the most laudable nature have not been wanting to 

 throw light on its indigenous botany. About the 

 beginning of this period, the celebrated Jacquin made 

 a voyage of discovery at the expence of the Emperor 

 Francis I. of Germany, to the West Indies, in the 

 course of which he visited most of the Caribbean 

 Islands, and explored also some part of the contigu- 

 ous coast of South America : and, on his return 

 home, he performed a very acceptable service, by 

 publishing, in 1760, a systematic enumeration of 

 the plants which he had discovered, and of a few 

 others which he had had an opportunity of examining 

 in the collection of Francis a Mygind; and three 

 years afterwards, appeared the Selectantm Stirpium 

 Americanarum Historia, a very important work, in 

 one volume folio, containing several new genera, and 

 illustrated with 183 plates, concerning which, as well 

 as his various other botanical publications, it may be 

 said, in the words of Lamarck, " Ce savant profes- 

 seur joint a d'excellentes descriptions, des figures par- 

 faites." 



Some years after Jacquin, Fusee Aublet, a French 

 apothecary, who appears to have been a botanist of 

 no ordinary skill and attainments, made a voyage to 

 the same quarter, with the view of exploring the pro- 

 vince of Guiana. He remained there for a consider- 

 able time, and pushed his inquiries with much dili- 

 gence and success ; so that, on his return~to his na- 

 tive country, he was enabled to lay a rich harvest of 

 discovery before the public, in the Histoire des Plan- 

 tes de la Guiane Francoise, which appeared in 1775, 

 in four volumes quarto. 



Sir Joseph Banks also contributed somewhat to 

 throw light on the flora of the northern parts of South 

 America, by publishing, in 1781, from the MSS.of Dr 

 William Houstoun, a Scotchman, who had died seve- 

 ral years before, a small work, which bears the follow- 

 ing title, indicative of its origin, Reliquios Houstoun- 

 iance ; sen Plantarum in America Meridionali a Gu- 

 lielmo Houstoun collcctarum Icones, manu propria ceri 

 incisce, cum descriptionibus. Nor can we forbear to 

 add, that though the southern extremity of the conti- 

 nent of America, and the extensive tracts of country 

 belonging to the Spaniards and the Portuguese on the 

 East, are still almost completely unexplored, we have 

 got some little information since that time with re- 

 spect to their flora, in the Fasciculus Plantarum 

 Magellanicarum of the younger Forster, who, with 

 his father, accompanied Captain Cook in his second 

 voyage round the world, and in the Flares Lusitani- 

 cee et Braziliensis Specimen of Vandelli, already re- 

 ferred to, as well as in the miscellaneous writings of 

 Lamarck, Vahl, Willdenow, Cavanilles, and one or 

 two other recent authors. 



The greatest and most successful efforts at disco- 

 very in South America, during this period, have, 

 however, been made chiefly in the western and north- 

 western provinces, and in those which lie more to- 

 wards the interior on the north. And for these we 

 are indebted, in the first instance, to the enlightened 



and indefatigable zeal of Dr Joseph Celestino Mutis, !' 



astronomer Royal at Santa Fc de Bogota, who, find- V ' 



ing himself stationed in a part of the world where Mut "' 

 the vegetable kingdom, though assuming the most 

 interesting appearance, was comparatively unknown, 

 began, many years ago, to devote a good deal of hii 

 time and attention to the study of it. Nor has he 

 ceased even since to promote the business of discove- 

 ry, by extending his researches over the surrounding 

 countries, and amassing a rich and very extensive col- 

 lection of specimens, as well as by transmitting oc- 

 casionally some of the most rare and curious of them 

 to his European correspondents ; among whom he 

 had heretofore the honour of reckoning the celebra- 

 ted Linnaeus. It is, however, a matter of regret, 

 that though he has written a few things which have 

 appeared in periodical transactions, bearing the stamp 

 or ability, he has not yet asserted his claim to those 

 honours which he so well deserves, by corning for- 

 ward as the author of any great work on the subject. 

 We are likewise much indebted to the skill and 

 industry of five Spanish gentlemen, Ruiz, Pavon, 

 Moncino, Cervantes, and Sesse, who were sent to 

 America several years ago, on a botanical expedition, 

 under the auspices of the king of Spain. The result 

 of their combined operations in the province of New 

 Granada, and the contiguous parts of Terra Firma, 

 where Dr Mutis was naturally selected, on account of 

 his superior knowledge, to have the direction of the 

 expedition ; and of the labours of Moncino, Cervan- Moncino, 

 tes, and Sesse, who at length separated from their col- Cervantes, 

 leagues, and went by agreement to Mexico, where and Sessi - 

 they have long been carrying on their inquiries, and 

 preparing an account of its' flora, has not yet been 

 made public ; and, of course, we are only entitled to 

 speak of it as a future, but, we trust, by no means 

 distant, accession to our knowledge. 



The discoveries, however, of Ruiz and Pavon, to Ruiz and 

 whom it fell to explore the kingdoms of Peru and Pavon. 

 Chili, have been some time before the world ; as 

 these gentlemen proceeded, shortly after their return 

 to Europe, to publish, in 1794', what they called a 

 Prodromus of the Flora of Peru, and have since fa- 

 voured us with the complete Florae Pernviance et 

 Chilensis Prodromus ; a work in 3 vola folio, which 

 is deservedly estimable, in as much as it is calcula- 

 ted, from the degree of information which it discloses, 

 to throw a great deal of new and interesting light 

 on the vegetable productions of that part of the 

 world. Nor are we likely to derive a less plentilul 

 harvest of discovery, from the more recent and high- 

 ly meritorious exertions of the justly celebrated Ba- 

 ron Frederick Alexander Von Humboldt, the pre- Humboldt 

 sent ambassador from Prussia to the court of France, and Bonj>- 

 and of his companion in travel Bonpland, a French land, 

 botanist. For, after spending five years in xplo- 

 ring some of the larger West India islands, and an 

 extensive range of continent on both sides of the 

 line, and collecting no less than 6200 species of 

 rare plants, they began, in 1808, to publish, at Pa- 

 ris, a work on the subject, entitled, Planttt Etjiti- 

 iwctialcs, which is executed in the most splendid 

 style. The tir^t volume of it, in folio, and a few 

 fasciculi of the second, have already come to this 

 country ; and, as we have been gratified with an op- 



