4 



doing this, but this was not what was needed in a country where the Vegetation is characterized by 

 succulent plants: Cactus, Agave, Euphorbia, Anhalonium, Alnus, Palmera, etc.etc. 



Certainly a good collector could be of great Service, but he has to be directed by a botanist capable of 

 studying and describing on the spot Furthermore this collector, who could not ride a horse, began 

 collecting plants in the outskirts of Mexico and Cordoba, that is to say, in places that had already been 

 visited by hundreds of botanical collectors. 



There was also a gardener in Charge of sending to France, the most important plants from the 

 horticultural point of view. This one seemed to me to be a very vulgär gardener without botanical 

 knowledge that would have been indispensable. Anyway his shipments were very sparse. 



Within the Committee of Paris, Botany was represented by Mr. Decaines, professor of the Garden of 

 Plants. In the first months of 1864, date when the committee was formed I wrote Mr. Descaines to offer 

 him my Services and to inform him of the projects that t had already begun. I offered to send him the 

 herbarium and to study on the spot the plants or families that he would assign to me and specially those 

 that cannot be prepared for the herbarium. 



Mr. Decaines new me personally for a long time as he had seen me frequently in the Garden of Plants in 

 Paris. He knew perfectly what I was capable of I also wanted to teil him that my assistance was entirely 

 disinterested, that I was not asking for a pecuniary subsidy. I was simply asking for an official 

 recommendation and specially to be able to change my residence without interfering with my medical 

 Position in the army, as seemed necessary with my work. I also wanted to accompany ad libitum 

 whatever expedition I chose. Well ! Would you believe it? Mr. Decaines did not choose to respond. It is 

 only after one year that he inquired about me, through his plant collector Mr. Boujeau, asking where my 

 projects where and if I sent them to him. You can understand that I told Mr. Boujeau to teil his chief that 

 I had nothing to say to him. You can see that I was hardly officially encouraged to work and I must 

 admit to you I was somewhat disgusted. 



At the beginning I wanted to do a little of everything and study the floral groups instead of the detail s in 

 the large Herbarium that were going to give Mr. Bouchinger great pleasure. He mentioned this to the 

 German specialists. Some plants went to Leipzig with Mettenius; the Lycopodiacea went to Berlin with 

 Alexander Braun,etc.etc. 1 soon recognized the truth of the proverb " he who embraces too much gets 

 nowhere" I also did not have time. I fmished by dedicating my time exclusively to the Cacti that 

 attracted me versus those that were less known. 



Now, and in spite of the incompleteness of my notes, 1 would like to rearrange them and publish them. 

 But in revewing and trying to classify them, I encounter many difficuities of which 1 would like to 

 introduce you to the principal ones. 



The greatesr difficuities lie in the defmition of the genders. The gender is always a more or less artificial 

 group and this is mostly seen in the family of the Cacti, more than elsewhere. Nature rarely forms 

 perfectly circumscribed groups; they proceed nearly always gradually in insensible transitions. They also 

 do not form a continuous series. These series can be compared to a line folded on itself in a way that the 

 furthest points will return and recontact those at the beginning of the series. In our present State of 



