of her inexhaustible fecundity, were investigated with a nice and scrutinizing eye. It would seem as if, in opposition to art, she has been desirous to manifest, on these mountains, that she needs not the aid of the feeble arm of man, to shew the extent of her vigour and magnificence. Ten years of unceasing application, and of profound study, have been followed by the acquisition of immense botanical riches, and have supplied, in the mother country, the materials for the great work entitled the Flora of Peru.
Emulous of the glory and virtues of his august father, the present sovereign of Spain has afforded an equal protedtion to natural history. A new expedition, commanded by Don Alexandro Malespina, reached Peru in 1790, and explored, as well by sea as by land, every part of the kingdom, principally with a view to accelerate the progress then making in botanical researches[1]. At the same time, the best adapted means
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The results of this expedition have been highly beneficial to Peru, as well with respect to navigation, as to a more perfect knowledge of the political and civil state of the kingdom, its agriculture, commerce, mineralogy, and, lastly, natural history. Don Antonio Pineda y Ramirez, commandant of the Spanish guards, who may justly be entitled the Waller of Peru, has particularly directed his investigations to lithology, tetrapodology, ornithology, ichthyology, and chemistry. Don Tadeo Haencke, and Don Louis Nee, have undertaken the entire department of botany. The former was the disciple of the celebrated Jacquin. His disquisitions on metallurgy, mineralogy, entomology, Sec. in which he has united to the vivacity natural to his time of life, an uncommon share of information, as well theoretical as pradlical, have done him infinite credit. Don Louis Neé, who possesses equal intelligence and activity, although more advanced in years, has enriched botany with the fruit of his laborious inquiries.
In the historical sketch of the botany of Peru in which we are engaged, we have
