394 Botanic Gardens of Cadiz. 



tions given in those schools, all those who wish to obtain the 

 degree of professors of pharmacy must attend during four 

 years. There is in these establishments some collections of 

 dried plants, a small cabinet of zoology and mineralogy, and 

 libraries sufficiently well stocked with modern books of all the 

 branches of science that throw any light on pharmacy. The 

 gardens of these schools, though small, will, in my opinion, 

 last longer than most other public gardens in Spain, because 

 they are supported by funds which are independent of the 

 public treasury, and which are regularly paid every year. 

 These funds arise from the degrees and titles conferred in 

 those schools ; from the exclusive privilege of selling the 

 Pharmacopoeia Hispana, and some other books, which every 

 apothecary in Spain must possess ; and from the produce which 

 is collected from the biennial visits made to the apothecaries' 

 shops, each of the apothecaries being on these occasions 

 obliged to pay 21. sterling. 



Botanic Gardens of Cadiz. — The special school of surgery 

 and medicine of Cadiz, supported from the beginning of that 

 establishment a botanical garden, almost as large as that which 

 the Apothecaries' Society of London have at Chelsea. Con- 

 tiguous to it there is another smaller garden, belonging to the 

 Cadiz Economical Society, intended for the naturalisation of 

 American plants of known utility, and for the propagation of 

 the valuable insect of the cochineal, brought over from 

 Oaxaca. The breed and propagation of this insect is princi- 

 pally entrusted to the care of the celebrated Don Antonio 

 Cabrera, who has also made improvements in this branch. In 

 this garden I saw cultivated in the open air a plant of Ipomce'a 

 jalapa, brought over alive from the country of its birth, and a 

 species of downy Cactus, of the Tunakmd, which was brought 

 over, with others, from Oaxaca with the cochineal. The first 

 of these two gardens was intended for the instruction of the 

 physicians of the royal marine ; but in proportion as this ma- 

 rine has disappeared, the garden has likewise declined for want 

 of funds, so that at present it possesses but few plants. How- 

 ever, I saw cultivated there in the open air some species of 

 aloes and agaves, the Dracae'na Draco, the Pomarm glauca of 

 Cavanilles, Parkinsom'a aculeata, some species of shrubby 

 capsicum, the Cestrum nocturnum, diurnum, and laurifolium, 

 which can hardly be kept alive in the green-houses of Madrid. 

 In various private gardens, one of the varieties of the plantain 

 tree, the Musa sapientum of Linnaeus, is cultivated, and produces 

 well-matured and exquisite fruit. The celebrated Mutis, who, 

 as well as the patriarch of Roman agriculture, Columella, was 



