Soon afterwards the Abbe Cavanilles began a larger and more comprehensive publication, in folio, 'entitled, ?cones et Descriptions: Plantarum quire aut sponge in Hispania -crescunt, aut in Mortis hospitan •r. The first volume appeared in 1791, containing 100 plates, with ample descriptions. It was follow ed by five more, of equal size and merit, the last of which came out in 1801. The whole work is en riched with critical remarks, and with much econo mical, as well as what may be called picturesque and sentimental, matter, respecting many native Spanish plants. The exotic part of these volumes is derived from the highly valuable and novel discoveries of the Spaniards in Mexico, Peru, and Chili, and the acquisitions of some voyagers to New Holland and the Philippine Islands. Hence numerous very fine plants, originally discovered by our own celebrated circumnavigators, but unfortunately not yet publish ed by them, have first been made known in the pages of Cavanilles.
In the course of the botanical tours of our author, lie collected materials for a general History of the Kingdom of Valencia, which appeared in 1795, in Spanish, making two volumes. This work, which we have aever seen, is said to be rich, not only in what relates to the three kingdoms of nature, but likewise in statistic and antiquarian information.
Having, in June 1801, been entrusted with the Directorship of the _Royal Garden at Madrid, he published in 1802, another Work in his native tongue, containing the characters and descriptions of the plants. demonstrated in his public botanical lectures. To these are prefixed an exposition of the'elemen ary principles of the •science, with explanations of botanic terms. Cavanilles was also a frequent and important contributor to the periodical work, en titled Anoka de Ciencias .Naturales, published at Madrid. Some observations_ of his, translated from thence, may be found in Dr Sim's and Mr Kong's Annals of Botany, Vol. 1. 409. The first of them
indeed, relative to certain seemingly lenticular bo dies, supposed to have an important share in the im pregnation of ferns and mosses, he has himself con. tradicted, as arising from an optical deception. His candid avowal of this, in a letter to Dr Swartz, is published in volume second of the said An* p. 587. We think him also mistaken in the true stigma of the Iris, his opinion being sufficiently re fined by those of Kolrenter and Sprengel, given in a note, in the very place just quoted; nor is his idea of the stamens of certain A:el:Tiede& correct. If he errs however, he errs with great authorities.
The subject of our present memoir undoubtedly excelled more in practical observation, than in phy siological speculation.. He is said to have prepared, and partly printed, the first volume of a Horhu Mt• tritensis, beings sort of sequel to his hones t for it was intended to contain, not merely the figures and descriptions of curious or new plants from the gar den, but also of rare dried specimens from•the seam at Madrid. This work, with any other pro ject in favour of acietice which he might have form ed, was cut short by his death, in May 1804, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. An engraved portrait of the Abbe Cavanilles, at the age of forty-four, is given in Schrader's Neues Journal, published at Er furt, in 1805. Dr Swartz in the Annals of Botany above quoted, gives this testimony to his worth. " Cavanilles was, like many others, often rather hasty in his conclusions ; but always eager to pro mote science. He was, indeed, a man of a very noble mind, and of the most generous communica tive turn ; so that I feel I have lost much by his un• timely deoease, which I shall ever regret." In these sentiments the writer of this article most sincerely concurs. • ' (Ja.)