Digitalphilologie

Titel

Letter from Mr. Humboldt to Prof. Cavanilles

Jahr

1806

Ort

London

Nachweis

in: Annals of Botany 1 (1806), S. 573–576.

Sprache

Englisch

Typografischer Befund

Antiqua; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung.

Identifikation

Textnummer Druckausgabe: II.18
Dateiname: 1803-Extracto_de_la-3-neu

Statistiken

Seitenanzahl:	4
Zeichenanzahl:	6276

Weitere Fassungen
	Extracto de la carta que el Baron de Humboldt escribió desde México en 22 de Abril de 1803 á D. Antonio Josef Cavanilles (Madrid, 1803, Spanisch)
	Lettre de M. A. de Humboldt à D. J. A. Cavanilles (Paris, 1804, Französisch)
	Letter from Mr. Humboldt to Prof. Cavanilles (London, 1806, Englisch)

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letter from mr. humboldt to prof. cavanilles.

Whilst we are anxiously expecting that Mr. Humboldt,who has arrived at Paris on his way home, will soon pub-lish some account of his travels, we doubt not but that, inthe mean time, the following extract of a letter from thiscelebrated naturalist to the late Professor Cavanilles, will beread with considerable interest. It has appeared in the 18thnumber of the Anales de Ciencias Naturales, and is datedMexico, April the 22d, 1803. After remarking that both M. Bompland and himselfhad preserved the most vigorous health, notwithstandingthe want of shelter and hunger they endured, particularlyin passing over the deserts, in a journey across the immensecontinent of South America, through the countries border-ing on the Amazon, to Lima, Mr. Humboldt, so far fromconfirming what has been said of the enervating effects ofthese latitudes, supposed to disqualify for every mentalexertion, asserts on the contrary that they never found theirheads clearer than when contemplating the magnificentscenery which nature displays in those regions. They could |574| bear, without inconvenience, an exposure for three hourstogether to the burning sun of Acapulco and Guayaquil,tread the glaciers of the Andes, cross the arid deserts, pe-netrate the thick woods, and wade through the miry mo-rasses, without feeling their courage fail, or even theirspirits in the least depressed. The travellers left Lima on the 25th of December 1802,stopped two months at Guayaquil, where they had thesatisfaction of the company of two distinguished botanists, Tafalla and Manzanilla, in their botanical excursions, andarrived at Acapulco on the 22d of March, after experiencinga dreadful storm off the Gulf of Nicoya. “The volcano of Cotopaxi, over which,” says Mr. Humboldt, “I had passed calmly the preceding year, onthe 5th of January made so terrible an explosion, that thenoise of it was heard by us, sailing at the distance of sixleagues. It vomited forth torrents of flame and showers ofashes, and the snow was detached from its summit; but itdoes not appear as yet to have done the smallest mischief,though, not being extinguished, the province of Quito iskept in a continual alarm. “You know the ardent enthusiasm of my friend andcompanion Bompland, and can judge of the botanicalriches we must have acquired in passing through a countrywhere no botanist had ever trod before, and where naturedelights in producing vegetables so different in form andorganization from all that are hitherto known. Our col-lection exceeds 4,200 species, among which are a greatnumber of new genera, and very many grasses and palms.It contains a hundred species of Melastoma, though allthose of Linnæus are not found in it. We have described4,200 plants, and made a great number of drawings fromliving specimens. We cannot ascertain the actual number ofnondescript plants till we return to Europe, and have an oppor-tunity of comparing them with those that have been already |575| published; but we hope to have amassed sufficient materialsto form a work worthy the attention of naturalists. Com-parative anatomy, as well as botany, has formed a pursuitin addition to the principal object of our journey, and weshall bring home many preparations made by my compa-nion Bompland. I have designed a number of profiles, orgeographical charts, with hygrometrical and eudiometricaltables, &c. to determine the physical qualities which haveso much influence on vegetable physiology; in such amanner that I can set down in toises the elevation abovethe sea at which each species of the tropical trees is found. “I am sorry to see what has been written on the Cin-chonas, because science never profits by the admixture ofpersonalities with these discussions, and am truly afflictedat the manner in which the venerable Mutis has beentreated. The most unfounded notions have been propa-gated in Europe of this celebrated naturalist, who treatedus at Santafé with that frankness which seems the peculiarcharacter of a Banks, communicating without reserve allhis possessions in botany, zoology, and physics, and per-mitting us to take notes of every thing we wished respectingthe new genera of the Flora of Santafé. He is now old;but it is astonishing what he has done and is doing forposterity, and we cannot but admire that one man shouldhave conceived and executed such vast designs. “M. Lopez showed me his memoir on Cinchona beforeit was printed, and I pointed out to him that in it was con-tained evidence that Mutis had discovered the Cinchona inthe mountains of Tena in 1772, whereas M. Lopez himselfhad only seen it near Honda in 1774. “With regard to the tree that affords the fine bark ofLoxa, having examined it in its native soil, we are of opi-nion that it has not yet been even described. We havecompared it with the Cinchonas which we have seen in theprovinces of Santafé, Payau, Peru, and Jaen; in its foliage |576| it resembles Cinchona glandulifera of the Flora Peruviana,but its flowers are different. We have sent to France acollection relative to the Cinchonæ, consisting of finespecimens of the barks, with branches in flower and infruit, and splendid coloured drawings presented to us bythe generous Mutis. To these we have added fossil bonesof elephants, found in the Cordilleras, at an elevation of1400 toises*.” In speaking of that colossal grass called in Santafé Gua-duas, which produces a siliceous earth similar to that of thebamboo, the writer remarks that this plant forms a newgenus very different from Arundo of Linnæus, and fromBambusa of Schreber. It was not without great difficultythat they discovered the flowers of this plant which the In-dians deny ever to bear any, and which even botanists whohave observed it for thirty years in countries where it is veryabundant, have never seen in blossom. Our travellers,however, were more fortunate, meeting with it in flowerin one of the most remote corners of the world, on theCasiquiare, which unites the Oronoko with the Marignon,and afterwards in the valley of Cauca, in the province of Popayan.

* We understand that these subjects have been deposited in the nationalmuseum at Paris.

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