46 



BOTANY. 



they penetrated into the interior, it was solely to experience 

 the grief and mortification of losing the fruits of their precious 

 labours*. 



The year 1778 may be considered as fixing the epoch of the 

 botany of Peru. In the course of that year, the expedition 

 fitted out by command of the Spanish monarch, Charles III. 

 to observe, discover, and derive advantage from the produc- 

 tions which the vegetable kingdom affords in that part of his 

 dominions, reached Peru. It consisted of three sexual bota- 

 nists, namely, Don Joseph Pabon, for the Court of Madrid ; 

 M. Dombey, for that of Paris ; and Don Hypolito Ruiz, who 

 may justly be denominated the Linnseus of Peru ; aided by 

 several other botanists. The expedition having been con- 

 cluded, Don Juan Tafaya, and Don Francisco Pulgar, were 

 left behind, to continue the researches, and to found the bo- 

 tanical garden of Lima. It was then that, not merely the 

 plains of the inhabited part of Peru, but likewise the never 

 before explored mountains of the Andes, that rich treasury of 

 the gifts of Nature, in which she has displayed all the powers 



* In the year 1736, the celebrated expedition undertaken with a view to measure 

 the terrestrial degrees beneath the Equator, consisting of the academicians of Paris, 

 Godin, Bouguer, and Condamine, and of Don Juan and Don Antonio De Ulloa, 

 arrived at Peru. M. Jussieu was attached to the academicians in quality of botanist, 

 and M. De Morainville in quality of draughtsman. The former, after having de- 

 voted infinite pains and labour to the botany of Peru, on his return to Europe, was 

 plundered, at Buenos-Ayres, of his drawings and specimens, by the boy who attended 

 him, and who fancied that the trunk in Vv'hich they were contained was replete with 

 treasure. Having been thus deprived of the valuable fruits of his industry and con- 

 summate knowledge, he was under the necessity of returning to Lima ; but his ad- 

 vanced time of life, and the efreft of the fatigues of his continual excursions, pre- 

 vented him from repairing his loss. 



