BUBANI’S FLORA PYRENAEA 37 
had been a patriotic youth; had early enrolled himself in, and was 
conspicuously active for the ends held in view by, a numerous 
guild of young Italians zealous for the overthrow of several foreign 
principalities which ruled various and important provinces of 
Italy 80 years since, and hopeful of a united kingdom under one 
and an Italian prince; and so prominent and influential had young 
Bubani been that, exiled from his native province, he removed 
to Tuscany, where also the restlessness of his political zeal short- 
ened his sojourn. Removing to Lucca, he was banished from that 
Duchy; and so, in 1835 he left Italy for southern France, remain- 
ing for some time at Marseilles, thence passing to Montpellier. 
We do not know how long before having come to this ancient and 
ce ebrated center of botanical activity Bubani had become an 
enthusiastic student of botany; but at Montpellier it appears that 
an ardent friendship soon became cemented between the dis- 
tiguished Professor Dunal and the young Italian, and the elder 
botanist suggested to the younger that he devote his time and 
means to the study of the botany of the Pyrenees as a life work. 
The suggestion was a pleasing one to Bubani, then 29 years old; 
and, the very next season, that of the year 1836, he made his 
actual entrance upon the great field on the second day of July. 
The delight with which he pursued that season’s work, the first 
beginnings of his great enterprise, was intimated afterwards in 
words which, translated, run thus: “How blissfully my days 
were passed in those high mountains, and with that never flagging 
enthusiasm I accomplished the summer’s task, are not to be 
described.’’ The ensuing winter was given to the study of his 
collections, aided by the library and herbaria at Montpellier. 
In the spring the mountains were returned to; and then, during 
nine more consecutive summers he continued this field work, 
passing the winters always in the study of his materials, sometimes 
with his friend Dunal at Montpellier, but often for weeks and 
months dwelling at Toulouse, there making use of the great 
Pyrenean herbarium of Lapeyrouse preserved in the museum 
of that city. 
In 1847 an amnesty had been proclaimed in favor of all 
political exiles from Italy, and Doctor Bubani returned to the 
possession of his ancestral estate, carrying with him, as he informs 
us “Fourteen large boxes of specimens mostly Pyrenaean,”’ also 
a manuscript, Flora Pyrenaea, unfinished, yet well advanced 
