Letter from Theodor Hartweg to the secretary of Horticultural Society of London [George Bentham]

Information

Title: Letter from Theodor Hartweg to the secretary of Horticultural Society of London [George Bentham]

Scope & content: Written from Riobamba [Ecuador]

Letter No 59. Annotated 'Recd [received] Jun 24 1842. J.L. [John Lindley, assistant secretary of Horticultural Society of London]'

He has made several excursions to the nearby mountains, and found some 'very interesting' plants in flower and seed; he found a 'singular' species of lupine with a 'dense, spiked inflorescence resembling a club', two other shrubby lupines, Gentiana, Castilleja, Culcitium rufescens [Senecio rufescens], Culcitium nivale [Delilia biflora] and some interesting medicinal plants on Chimborazo [Chimborazo Mountain, Ecuador], near the perpetual snow; he will continue to Quito [Ecuador] in about a fortnight and stay there until the end of the rainy season in May, before continuing to Pasto [Colombia] and Popayan [Popayan, Colombia]; it has been almost a year since he heard from the Society and fears their letters have 'miscarried'; he is anxious to hear about his Guatemala collection: 'from your long silence I must fear that it did not arrive in the best condition'; the box HS108 from Cuenca [Ecuador] has arrived in Guayaquil [Ecuador] and will be forwarded to Panama

Hartweg's accounts for 13 Jan-13 Feb 1842 comprise 'monthly allowance' $50, 'wages of mozo [servant]' $6.4, 'keeping of three mules' $6.4, 'freight of luggage' $10.2 and 'guides' $0.5