244 Botanic Garden of Madrid, 



Among that number, the graminese, of which there were 

 six hundred species, excelled the rest, without, however, 

 reckoning the magnificent collection of cerealia, the families 

 of compound flowers, umbelliferae, cruciferae, cistineae, mal- 

 vacse, papilionaceae, solanaceae, and the genus silene. There 

 is also a good collection of succulent plants, particularly of the 

 genus of cactus and aloe. 



This garden has a considerable library, in which very few 

 books published before the year 1804 are wanting. In that 

 year the illustrious Cavanilles dying, his library, which had 

 been bought from him by government during his life-time, was 

 added to that of the establishment ; but from that period up 

 to 1814 it hardly increased, except by the addition of some 

 books on belles lettres, bought from the heirs of Cavanilles 

 for ten thousand reals (100/. sterling). From 1814 till 1823 

 several applications were made to government; but the ac- 

 quisitions made during that period hardly amount in value 

 to 500/., when 3000/. would have barely sufficed to buy the 

 many expensive works on botany and agriculture that were 

 published both in Europe and America, without the perusal 

 of which it is not easy to publish works in which repetitions 

 of what has already been said should not occur. 



This garden possesses one of the most copious herbariums in 

 Europe, which J calculate amounts to about 30,000 species. 

 The formation of it began in the autumn of 1801, with the 

 collection made by the celebrated Don Luis Nee in his voyage 

 round the world with Malespina, and with what he himself col- 

 lected before and after that voyage, in Spain, all which amounted 

 to about 12,000 species. It was afterwards enriched with those 

 sent by several Spanish corresponding members residing in 

 different parts of Europe and America, with the collection 

 made in the island of Cuba by the celebrated Don Baltasar 

 Boldo, with those which I myself collected in 1803 during my 

 journey to the Asturias, with those afterwards collected in the 

 Andalusias by Don Jose Demetrio Rodriguez, and Don Simon 

 de Roxas Clemente, and in Santander by Don Bernabe Salcedo, 

 with those published in the Flora of Peru and Chili by Ruiz and 

 Pavon,and finally with all theherbarium of Cavanilles, who pos- 

 sessed a great collection of plants, presented to him by the most 

 celebrated botanists of Europe of his time, and which I believe 

 amounted to more than 18,000 species. The illustrious Cava-r 

 nilles bequeathed his herbarium to the botanical garden, under 

 the condition of my receiving a specimen of every duplicate 

 plant in his collection. In the garden of Madrid there also 

 exists the extensive collection of the celebrated Don Jose 



