xii Richard Sprtice. 
addition to his botanical zeal which enabled him to reap 
a rich harvest of plants which were from time to time trans¬ 
mitted to Europe for distribution and sale for his support, 
Spruce’s skill as a cartographer enabled him to add materially 
to our knowledge of the geography of South America. When 
at Ambato, on the Quitensian Andes, in 1859, his services 
were secured as one of the band under Mr. Clements Markham, 
to which, in imitation of the example set by the Dutch, was 
entrusted the work of securing plants and seeds of Cinchona 
for transmission to India—work which was to lay the founda¬ 
tion of the important enterprise which has been so successful 
and so beneficial. To Spruce the chief duty of looking after 
the supply of Cinchona succirubra from the slopes of Chim¬ 
borazo devolved, and his mission was accomplished success¬ 
fully in so far as the Cinchona plants were concerned, but 
disastrously for himself. Early in i860, during its progress, 
his health entirely broke down, and thus maimed he made his 
way to Guayaquil, only to find himself financially ruined by 
fraud. A couple of years more concluded his fifteen years’ 
life in South America, and he returned to England. A small 
Government-pension relieved his straitened circumstances to 
some extent, and this was increased subsequently by a belated 
grant from the Government of India in recognition of his 
services in connexion with Cinchona. Settling first at Hurst - 
pierpoint, Spruce then moved to Welburn in Yorkshire, and 
ultimately to Coneysthorpe, where he died December 28,1893, 
having by careful regimen prolonged his life to the advanced 
age of seventy-six years. 
The botanical work of Spruce falls into two distinct periods, 
leaving out of account his few early essays. The first, that 
of his American travels, credits him with an enormous increase 
to our knowledge of plant-forms through the collections he 
poured into Europe, estimated to include some seven thousand 
species of Flowering Plants and Ferns, besides a vast number 
of lower Cryptogamia, especially of Mosses and Liverworts. 
Few travellers have ever collected so extensively, and with 
so much judgement and skill; his neatness of hand and 
