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 Popayan [Popayan, Colombia]

Letter No 66

He has made several excursions, but he did not find much at Purace [Colombia] due to a drought and the practice of 'burning immense tracts in order to clear and fertilize the land, this tends greatly to diminish the flora'; he was more successful near Pitayo [Colombia], where the woods are 'in their primitive splendour, and where they suffered less from the destruction of mankind'; he collected specimens, seeds and bark of two species of cinchona, known as 'quina roxa' and 'quina naranjada', both 'justly appreciated by the natives for their medicinal properties, and which deserve to be better known in Europe'; he found a Clethra in flower and seed, Myrica, Mutisia grandiflora, a perennial scarlet Salvia, Macleonia [unidentified] and a 'very pretty' Fuchsia resembling Fuchsia dependens, but with smaller flowers growing abundantly at the points of the young shoots; the herbarium is progressing, but he is running out of drying paper and will not be able to obtain any until Bogota [Colombia]

Hartweg's accounts for 13 Aug-13 Sep 1842 comprise 'monthly allowance' $50, 'wages of mozo [servant]' $2.4, 'keeping of three mules' $5.7, 'freight of luggage' $30 and 'guides' $0.6