528 
which he at length recovered in Jamaica. 
And as the war had juft broken out be- 
twixt France and England, he had the 
misfortune to be taken prifoner at fea, and 
obliged againft his inclination to vifit 
Montferrat and the defert ifland Gonave. 
The firft collection of plants for the 
garden had been fent in Aucuft 1755 from 
Martinico, by way of Marfeilles. In 
February 1756, Van der Schot failed from 
the fame ifland with the fecond under his 
care, which was very confiderable, and 
contained a great variety of trees and 
fhrubs. All thefe arrived in good con- 
dition, except the heliconia {pecies, which 
had on the voyage been attacked by the 
mice. The trees were from 5 to 6 feet 
high, and of the thicknefs of a man’s arm, 
and the moft of them had already borne 
fruit in their native land: their tops had 
been cut off; and only the principal 
branches left, about two feet Jong. The 
fhrubs remained unmutilated. They had all 
been taken out of the ground, by digging 
at a proper diftance a circular trench 
zround them, fo that as large ball as poffi- ~ 
ble of their native foil was left between 
the roots. Thefe lumps of earth were 
tightly bound round with leaves of the 
miufa and ropes made of the bark of the 
hibifcus tiliaceus, and thus kept firmly to- 
gether, fo that no mould could efcape. 
A fingle tree packed up in this manner, 
weighed above a hundred pounds. The 
balls were {paringly watered, and hung up 
jn the open air, where they foon began 
to vegetate. Left by the fhaking of the 
carriages by land the earth fhouid be 
Joofened from the roots, thefe trees and 
fbrubs were conveyed in boats down the 
rivers to the harbour of St. Pierre in Mar- 
tinico, from which place they were tran- 
fported on board of fhip to Leghorn, and 
tnenee carried on the backs of mules to 
Schénbrunn. Never, perhaps, was a 
richer cargo of living plants brought from 
the torrid zone to Europe. In Auguf 
1756, Buonamici failed from the ifland 
St. Euftatius with the third colleGtion to 
Leghorn. Towards the end of the fame 
year, the fourth colle&tion was fhipped. 
‘The fifth went from Curacao to Amfter- 
dam, under the care of J. A. Vefuntin, 
who died in Germany of the flux. This 
collection was the richeft in corals and 
ether marine productions, which even now 
conititute a principal ornament of the 
Imperial cabinet of natural hiftory. The 
fixth collection was fent in the fame year 
and from the fame ifland to Amfterdam. 
{n January 1759, Jacquin and Barculli 
embarked with the lat collection from thg 
\ 
| The Emperor of Germany's 
[July 1, 
Havannah to Ferrol, and reached Vienna 
in July. This laft cargo was particularly 
rich in various kinds of animals. 
Thus, in a few years, the number of 
exotics in the garden of Schénbrunn con- 
fiderably increafed ; and was, befides, 
augmented by purchafes from other places. 
After the death of Francis I. in 1765, his 
widow, Maria Thereiia, ordered that the 
garden fhouid be maintained in the fame 
condition, A fhort time befere the de- 
ceafe of that emprefs, a great and irre- 
parable lofs happened to the garden. ‘The 
gardener, Van der. Schot, was in his old 
age attacked by the gout, fo that for many 
weeks he was unable to leave his room. 
The men to whom during his illnefs the 
care of the plants had been committed, 
were very negligent in their bufinefs; and 
the perfon, whofe duty it was to attend te 
the large hot-houfe, forgot, in one of the 
coldeft nights ef winter, to kindle a fire 
in the fove; and, in the merning, igno- 
rantly thought he might make amends for 
his negle&t by putting in an unoufual 
quantity of fuel: but, unluckily, the 
fudden tranfition from cold to heat killed 
many beautiful plants. Among the fplen- 
did ornaments of the garden thus deftroyed, 
were all the cinnamon trees from Marti- 
nico, with ftems of the thicknefS of a 
man’s arm, and fpreading tops; feveral 
crefcentias, achras, annonas, and portlan- 
dias, and a Ceccoloba grandifolia, which 
was already twenty feet high, and had 
leaves two feet broad. 
A fecond lofs to the garden was, that 
in Feb. 1783, a large colleCtion, which 
M. Céré had fent from the [fe de France 
to Trieft, arrived wholly {poilt. 
In the mean time the emperor Jofeph IT. 
had authorifed MM. Jacquin and Von 
Born, to propofe men properly qualified 
to undertake a literary journey into dif- 
tant regions of the world. ~ Profeffor 
Marter was appointed director of this 
expedition ; and to him were affociated 
Doftor Stupicz, the gardeners Boor and 
Bredemeyer, and the painter Von Moll. 
This fociety left Vienna in April 1783, 
and in the following September arrived in 
Philadelphia. They travelled through 
Pennfylvania, Virginia, and Carolina. 
Mr. Boor went in company with Mr. 
Sehapf, who had joined him, to Florida, 
and thence to Providence-ifland. Brede- 
meyer returned with a colle&tion of beau- 
tiful plants in 1784, by way of England, 
to Vienna. Boor, after he had during * 
eight months collected on the Bahama 
iflands, a great number of rare plants, 
arrived in Vienna in September 178%. 
But 
