they penetrated into the interior, it was solely to experience the grief and mortification of losing the fruits of their precious labours[1].
The year 1778 may be considered as fixing the epoch of the botany of Peru. In the course of that year, the expedition fitted out by command of the Spanish monarch, Charles III. to observe, discover, and derive advantage from the productions which the vegetable kingdom affords in that part of his dominions, reached Peru. It consisted of three sexual botanists, namely, Don Joseph Pabon, for the Court of Madrid; M. Dombey, for that of Paris; and Don Hypolito Ruiz, who may justly be denominated the Linnæus of Peru; aided by several other botanists. The expedition having been concluded, Don Juan Tafaya, and Don Francisco Pulgar, were left behind, to continue the researches, and to found the botanical garden of Lima. It was then that, not merely the plains of the inhabited part of Peru, but likewise the never before explored mountains of the Andes, that rich treasury of the gifts of Nature, in which she has displayed all the powers
- ↑ In the year 1736, the celebrated expedition undertaken with a view to measure the terrestrial degrees beneath the Equator, consisting ot the academicians of Paris, Godin, Bouguer, and Condamine, and of Don Juan and Don Antonio De Ulloa, arrived at Peru. M. Jussieu was attached to the academicians in quality of botanist, and M. De Morainville in quality of draughtsman. The former, after having devoted infinite pains and labour to the botany of Peru, on his return to Europe, was plundered, at Buenos-Ayres, of his drawings and specimens, by the boy who attended him, and who fancied that the trunk in which they were contained was replete with treasure. Having been thus deprived of the valuable fruits of his industry and consummate knowledge, he was under the necessity of returning to Lima; but his advanced time of life, and the effect of the fatigues of his continual excursions, prevented him from repairing his loss.
