COLLECTION'S OF HAENKE AND NEE. 27 



most touching manner the enthusiasm which was characteristic of the 

 collector and observer. While they were navigating the Rio Mamore 

 in a canoe they discovered in a marsh bordering the river a plant so 

 marvelously beautiful that Haenke fell upon his knees in worship, 

 offering to the Author of so magnificent a creation a prayer of grateful 

 homage. He insisted on stopping and camping at this place and left 

 it with the greatest reluctance." This was about the year 1801. The 

 plant was in all probability the magnificent water lily afterwards 

 described as Victoria amasonica. 



Haenke looked forward to returning some day to Europe, but he 

 was accidental^ poisoned and died at Cochabama in 1817. Only a 

 small proportion of his herbarium reached Europe, the greatest part 

 having been sent by the authorities to Lima, where it was lost. About 

 9,000 plants collected on the Malaspina expedition were sent, according 

 to his wish, to the National Museum of Bohemia, at Prague. Others 

 found their way to the Roj^al Garden at Madrid, with those of Nee. 

 Duplicates of these were sent to the University of Prague and the Musee 

 Palatin at Vienna, and about 700 species to the Royal Herbarium at 

 Munich. It was upon the collections at Prague and the notes accom- 

 panying them that the Reliquia? Haenkeanse of Presl was based. 6 



Nee, who reached Cadiz in 1794, took back with him 10,000 plants, 

 nearly half of which were apparently new. His herbarium, together 

 with descriptive notes and drawings, belong to the Royal Garden at 

 Madrid. Many of his Guam plants were described in 1802 by Cava- 

 nilles; c among them are a number of ferns as well as of flowering- 

 plants that have not since been recognized, and no careful comparison 

 has been made between the types in Madrid and material from the 

 Pacific in England. 



Notes of both Nee and Haenke are included in Malaspina's official 

 narrative, lying in manuscript in the archives of the Madrid hydro- 

 graphic office. Malaspina shortly after his return to Spain was thrown 

 into prison, suspected of revolutionary designs. The Spanish Gov- 

 ernment refused to publish his narrative, and when a map appeared 

 embod3 7 ing the results of his explorations his name was not allowed to 

 appear upon it. Humboldt speaks of this great injustice with indig- 

 nation. Malaspina was an Italian by birth. A sketch of his life is 

 included in Amat di San Filipo's Biografia dei viaggiatori italiani, 

 Rome, 1881. For along time his manuscript history disappeared from 

 view and investigations concerning it were made by the Societa Geo- 

 grafica Italiana, the president of which, in his address of 1868 (Bolle- 

 tino, 1868, pp. 73-74), announces its discoveiy in the archives of the 

 hydrographic office at Madrid, and states that it is written in a great 



« A. d'Orbigny, Annales des Sciences Naturelles, vol. 13, p. 55, 1840. 



& See List of works. 



c Cavanilles, Josef, Description, etc. See List of works. 



