8vo [21.5 x 14 cm]; includes 9 original papers by Spruce, folding partly colored map, plate of Utricularia Peltata, Spruce, from Linn. Society Journal Botany Vol. IV, 1845. contemporary half calf, with gilt title lettering 'Opuscula; R. S.' on leather spine label, marbled boards rubbed, contents of papers listed hand-written on endpaper, initials RS in ink on margin of first paper, marginal notes & corrections, very good. A The papers by Richard Spruce included here are: The Musci and Hepaticae of Teesdale, Trans. Bot. Society of Edinburgh, 1844 (pp 65-89); On Several Mosses new to the British Flora, London Journal of Botany, 1845 (pp1-27); On Five New Plants from Eastern Peru, Linnaean Society, 1859 (pp191-204); On the Mode of Branching of Some Amazon Trees, Linn. Soc., 1861, (pp 3-51); Notes of a Visit to the Cinchona Forests on the Western slope of the Quiteian Andes, Linn Journal, 1859, (176-192); On the Mountains of Llanganati in the Eastern Cordillera of the Quitonian Andes, offprint (?, or possibly earlier printing, has a few hand corrections) from Royal Geographical Society of London, 1861 (1-21, with folding engraved map, partly colored showing his routes); On the River Purus, a Tributary of the Amazon, no publisher stated, June 13, 1864 (1-13); Notes on the Valleys of Piura and Chira in Northern Peru and on the Cultivation of Cotton Therein, London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1864 (pp 1-81). In addition there is only part of his paper, Report on the Expedition to Procure Seeds and Plants of the Cinchona Succirubra, or Red Bark Tree, London 1861, pages 85-112 only, the rest being removed but pages 104-111 being a note by Spruce on Cinchona Succirubra, Pavon and allied species, dated 1861 and pages 111-112 being a note by Clements R. Markham , respected author who wrote two books on obtaining Cinchona seeds and plants for planting in India to develop a cure for malaria. There is also a paper by Daniel Oliver, 'Descriptions of New Species of Utricularia from South America, 1859 (pp 169-176). Mark Honigsbaum in his book Valverde's Gold, 2004, on the exploration in eastern Ecuador for Incan gold, refers extensively to Spruce's work, especially that on Llanganati Mountains and he reproduced Spruce's map described above in his book but in much reduced size. The manuscript notes in parts of this work may be in Spruce's hand but this is not verified. Spruce was one of the great plant hunters of the Amazon region, collecting over seven thousand botanical specimens, many of which were previously unknown. Spruce was in the Amazon region at the same time as Bates and Wallace, and all three lived on the earnings from specimens sent back to England. In 1860, Spruce collected some 600 cinchona plants and thousands of seeds in Ecuador for raising in India for the production of quinine as a cure for malaria. The Royal Geographical Society elected him an honorary fellow in 1866 for his fine work. The Linnaean Society also made him an associate. Spruce was a great influence on the work of Darwin, Wallace, Richard Schultes and others. The author's 'Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon & Andes; being records of travel on the Amazon and its Tributaries, the Trombeta, Rio Negro, Uapes, etc. . to the Orinoco, the eastern side of the Andes of Peru and Ecuador and the shores of the Pacific during 1849-1864' was published in 1908 after his death, by Alfred Russell Wallace, and remains a classic work of travels in South America and especially Amazonia.
