Botanical Expedition to the Viceroyalty of Peru

[1] During the 18th century, Europe saw a flowering interest in the science of botany that in Spain crystallized in the organization of a series of scientific expeditions to Spanish colonial territories in America, the Pacific islands and Asia.

Due to his formation under Casimiro Gómez Ortega at Madrid's Royal Botanical Garden, Hipólito Ruiz López was named head botanist of the expedition, with French physician Joseph Dombey and pharmacologist José Antonio Pavón Jiménez appointed as his assistants.

Between 1799 and 1808, an herbarium was set up in the territory of present Quito (Ecuador) to further study the Huayaquilensis Flora, that continued making regular mailings of material to Spain until the death of Tafalla in 1811.

Unfortunately, a part of the collection consisting of 53 crates with 800 illustrations, dried plants, seeds, resins and minerals was lost when the ship transporting it was wrecked on the coast of Portugal.

Hipólito Ruiz López and José Antonio Pavón Jiménez published Flora Peruviana et Chilensis prodromus in ten volumes, richly illustrated with engravings of the specimens.

The result of these observations was the publication of Quinología o tratado del árbol de la quina in Madrid, 1792, that was promptly translated into Italian in 1792, German in 1794 and English in 1800.

Also in the Archives of the Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid was Flora Huayaquilensis an expedition by Juan José Tafalla Navascués,[1] a Spaniard who was one of the first who traveled to South America and documenting the different plants with wonderful paintings and written descriptions.