66 
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE HERBARIUM. 
and the human race. In the Government plantations alone in 
India there are now (1906) several millions of trees. 
Mr. Spruce continued his observations in the neighbourhood of 
Guayaquil and the Pacific Coast (1861-64), and devoted his atten¬ 
tion principally to the Hepaticse. The hardships he had undergone 
were aggravated by the loss of all his savings through the fraud of 
a banker, so that when he got to Guayaquil he found himself 
without any money. 
After fifteen years of “toil and pleasure” he returned to England 
(1864), and retired to Coneysthorpe, near Castle Howard, where, 
during the last few years of his life, he received a small pension 
which the Government granted to him for his services to the State. 
His remarkable collection of plants, consisting of over 7,000 
species, is in the National Herbarium at Kew. In addition to the 
valuable information regarding the economic uses of several im¬ 
portant genera (such as Siphonia, from which we obtain our chief 
supply of caoutchou or India rubber ), his MS. contained vocabularies 
of over twenty Amazonian languagesand other important scientific 
records. 
In 1864 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Berlin) 
in recognition of the distinguished services which he had rendered 
to Science. 
From 1864 to 1893 he devoted his leisure time to the study of 
his early favourites, the Plepaticae. 
His “ Hepatics of the Amazon and Andes,” a volume of near 600 
pages with 22 plates, was published in 1884-5, and has been 
described as the most “ logical and scientific classification of the 
group that has been evolved.” 
It is a pleasing thing to know that Mr. Spruce derived much 
pleasure and instruction from his visits (1836-184S) to the Dalton 
and Middleton collection of plants in the York Museum, and his 
friendship with Mr. Henry Baines (and members of his family) is 
acknowledged by the author of the “ Flora in Yorkshire,” and is 
endorsed (1851) in the letter already referred to. 
The specimens of flowering plants which Mr. Spruce contributed 
to the Museum (1835-1836) record the earnestness and accuracy 
that characterized the works of this distinguished botanist and 
honoured Yorkshireman. 
Additional evidence of this kindly feeling may be found in the 
following extract from a letter by Dr. Spruce to the writer of 
these notes;—- 
