Volume 1

Travels in Brazil, in the years 1817-1820 : undertaken by command of His Majesty the King of Bavaria / by Joh. Bapt. von Spix and C.F. Phil. von Martius.

  • Spix, Johann Baptist von, 1781-1826.
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Travels in Brazil, in the years 1817-1820 : undertaken by command of His Majesty the King of Bavaria / by Joh. Bapt. von Spix and C.F. Phil. von Martius. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lead to conclusions respecting their original coun¬ try, and their gradual diffusion over the surface of the globe. He proposed connecting these re¬ searches with climatic and geognostic observations ; and to this end to extend them to the most insig¬ nificant members of the vegetable kingdom, such as mosses, lichens, and fungi. He was likewise to observe the changes which both the native and exotic plants undergo, when exposed to certain ex¬ ternal influences ; and to investigate the history of the soil, and the method of cultivation there in use. An examination of the internal structure, and of the development of tropical plants, promised in¬ teresting solutions of the laws of vegetable life in general, as the observation of any traces that should be discovered of an earlier vegetation, now extinct, might afford materials for the foundation of a geognostic theory. Lastly, he conceived he should promote the object of the mission by an accurate investigation of the Brazilian materia medica, drawn from the vegetable kingdom, as well as of all other vegetable substances, the use of which might be interesting to arts and manufactures, and by carefully indicating the manner in which they are employed in their native country. But besides the observations and researches in the departments peculiar to each professor, in which reciprocal assistance and support were presupposed, they were particularly enjoined to complete, as far as possible, the collections of the academy, by send-