Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/68

46 they penetrated into the interior, it was solely to experience the grief and mortification of losing the fruits of their precious labours.

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 of