MEMOIR OF PALLAS. 53 
In 1781, he began a work which he meant parti- 
cularly to dedicate to the insects of Russia (Jcones 
Insectorum, &c.), although only two numbers ap- 
peared. But it is quite impossible here to enume- 
rate in detail the numerous quadrupeds, birds, 
reptiles, fishes, mollusca, worms, and zoophytes, of 
which he at this time published the original deserip- 
tion. The simple enumeration of the memoirs which 
he sent to the various. academies to which he be- 
longed, would occupy much room. He was not 
even alarmed at the prodigious project of a general 
history of the animals and plants of the Russian 
empire; and he had really made great progress in 
its execution, although the labour must have pre- 
sented innumerable difficulties. 
Pallas’s circumstances, perhaps, still more than 
his tastes, contributed to make him a devoted 
botanist. Having in 1781 published “ A Cata- 
logue of the Plants in Mr Demidof’s Garden at 
Moscow,” (Hnumeration Plant., &c.), the Empress, 
whose love of the magnificent was flattered with 
the idea of a “ Flora Russica,” directed all the her- 
baria which had been collected by previous travellers 
to be sent him, and engaged him to undertake the 
work, she becoming responsible for the expense. 
Pallas himself had made very considerable collec- 
tions, and the work promised to extend widely our 
knowledge of the vegetable kingdom. Two volumes 
only, however, appeared, which contain principally 
trees and shrubs; and this because in Russia, as in 
most other kingdoms, a change of ministry puts a 
