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tatiic garden at a small distance from the port. 

 We there found Mr. Le Gros, the French vice- 

 consul, who had often scaled the summit of the 

 peak, and who served us as an excellent guide. 

 He was accompanying Captain Baudin in a voy- 

 age to the West Indies, which has largely con- 

 tributed to enrich the garden of plants at Paris. 

 A dreadful tempest, of which Mr. Le Dm has 

 given an account in the narrative of his voyage 

 to Porto Rico, forced the vessel to put into Te- 

 nerifFe ; where Mr. Le Gros was led by the 

 beauty of the spot to settle. It was he who 

 gave the learned of Europe the first accurate 

 ideas of the great lateral eruptions of the peak, 

 which has been very improperly called the ex- 

 plosion of the volcano of Chahorra *. 



The establishment of a botanical garden at 

 Teneriffe is a very happy idea, on account of the 

 double influence, which it may have on the pro- 

 gress of botany, and on the introduction of use- 

 ful plants into Europe. For the first idea we 

 have of it we are indebted to the Marquis de 

 Nava whose name deserves to be recorded 

 with that of Mr. Poivre, and who, habitually en- 

 gaged in doing good, has made a noble use of his 

 fortune. He undertook, at an enormous ex- 

 pense, to level the hill of Durasno, which now 

 rises as an amphitheatre, and which was begun 



* The 3th of June, 1798. 

 f Marquis dc Villanueva del Prado. 



