Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes
Being Records of Travel on the Amazon and its Tributaries, the Trombetas, Rio Negro, Uaupés, Casiquiari, Pacimoni, Huallaga and Pastasa

The 1908 two-volume narrative of unprecedented botanical exploration in South America, the fruits of which are still significant.

Richard Spruce (Author), Alfred Russel Wallace (Edited by)

9781108069205, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 February 2014

584 pages, 49 b/w illus. 3 maps
21.5 x 13.9 x 3.3 cm, 0.65 kg

Having previously embarked on a collecting expedition to the Pyrenees, backed by Sir William Hooker and George Bentham, the botanist Richard Spruce (1817–93) travelled in 1849 to South America, where he carried out unprecedented exploration among the diverse flora across the northern part of the continent. After his death, Spruce's writings on fifteen fruitful years of discovery were edited as a labour of love by fellow naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913), whom Spruce had met in Santarém. This two-volume work, first published in 1908, includes many of the author's exquisite illustrations. Showing the determination to reach plants in almost inaccessible areas, Spruce collected hundreds of species, many with medicinal properties, notably the quinine-yielding cinchona tree, as well as the datura and coca plants. Volume 1 contains Wallace's biographical introduction and a list of Spruce's published works. The narrative includes discussion of Pará, Santarém, and the Negro and Orinoco rivers.

Preface
Biographical introduction
List of books and papers
1. Pará and the equatorial forests
2. Voyage to Santarem and first residence there
3. To Obydos and the River Trombetas
4. Residence at Santarem
5. Geology and botany of Santarem
6. From Santarem to the Rio Negro
7. Residence at Manáos
8. Voyage up the Rio Negro at Sao Gabriel
9. Cataracts and mountain-forests of Sao Gabriel
10. Cataracts and unexplored forests of the Uaupés river
11. At San Carlos do Rio Negro
12. In Humboldt's country
13. To the cataracts of the Orinoco and return to San Carlos
14. San Carlos to Manáos (Barra).

Subject Areas: Botany & plant sciences [PST]