BULLETIN OF DENISON UNIVERSITY. 
153 
only a year. His botanical discoveries upon the voyage began at the 
first port in which the Rurik anchored after he had got aboard. For 
near Plymouth he found the Centaurea nigrescens, previously un- 
known to English botanists. The unfavorable season, wet at Tener- 
iffe, in Brazil, and dry in Chili, prevented successful collecting. It 
must be said, too, that Chamisso was not only not aided, but even hin- 
dered and thwarted in his duties as a collector by the captain : many 
carefully gathered specimens, especially sea-weeds, were by the latter’s 
order thrown overboard when left to dry on the deck or in the cabin. 
This unfortunate circumstance and the limited space at his disposal 
make it remarkable that Chamisso could accomplish what he did. The 
flora of the thrice-visited Radack Islands was preserved almost com- 
plete. California, as yet almost untrodden by the botanist, furnished 
much that was new, among other things the Eschscholtzia californica^ 
one of the Papaveraceae, named in honor of the ship’s physician, 
who was also the naturalist’s most helpful friend during the whole 
voyage. Seeds of this Californian flower, carried home by Chamisso, 
gave it a permanent place in the gardens of Berlin. An abundant col- 
lection was made upon the islands of the Arctic Ocean of plants which 
reminded him vividly of the Alpine flora of Switzerland. From the 
northern regions alone, visited by the Rurik, he brought to Germany 
more than fifty plants, which thus far had been unknown. The Cape 
of Good Hope, called the most thoroughly studied botanical garden 
on earth, furnished him several species new even to the trained eye of 
Mundt, a Berlin botanist whom he met there. 
Though he began at once on his return to arrange his hay, as he 
called his plant-collection, yet he personally did but a small portion of 
the work. With rare unselfishness he distributed them freely to learned 
institutions, especially of Berlin, and to other especially qualified 
botanists, in whose hands they became the basis of many valuable in- 
vestigations and conclusions. For example, he sent to the Swede 
Agardh, an authority upon sea-weeds, a collection of algae brought home 
from his journey, among them a rare example of reduplication, found 
