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 PART II.

THE PERUVIAN TERRITORY.

BOTANY

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PRESENT STATE OF THE BOTANICAL SCIENCE IN PERU.

IN Peru, botany, considered as a science, was in a manner neglected until towards the close of the eighteenth century. The primitive inhabitants, who were fond of agriculture, and of the empiric practice of medicine, applied themselves to the discovery of the virtues of many plants. The doctrine which was handed down from father to son, together with a certain inclination which prompted them to this study, and the high employment it procured them, rendered them excellent herbalists. The revolutions, however, by which the conquest was was

culty,