directed to draw up a report regarding the class of observations on natural history which he proposed should be carried out during the expedition. It suggested observations in three kingdoms of Nature, animal, vegetable, and mineral, to which was added a fourth class of physical and meteorological observations. "The class of quadrupeds," he said, "being subordinate to man, that being should always first attract the attention of the traveler naturalist. . . . The first shade after man is that of the anthropomorphic animals or apes with a human figure, of which it would be desirable to know all the series, because they establish an insensible passage from man to the quadrupeds."
Before leaving Paris for his voyage, Commerson made his will, in which he provided for the endowment as a Prix de Vertu of a medal of two hundred livres, bearing on its obverse face an inscription signifying that it was a reward for the practice of virtue, and on the reverse one signifying that the unworthy "P. C." had dedicated it. It was very like the Montyon prizes, afterward established and carried into effect. Having set out from Rochefort, after considerable delay, the expedition reached the mouth of the Rio de la Plata in May, 1767, and remained for some time at Montevideo to repair damages suffered from a storm. Here Commerson was astonished at the superfluity of horses and cattle, and wrote to his brother-in-law, further: "I have not failed to reap a fruitful harvest of plants, birds, and fishes, and I am anxious that nothing should escape me; but what can I do? I am neither an Argus nor a Briareus; a single day's hunting, fishing, or even a walk places me in the embarrassment of Midas, under whose hands everything became golden. Ofttimes I do not know when or how to begin, and I have scarcely time to eat or drink, so that my excellent friend, our good captain, is obliged to forbid my lamp being kept alight after midnight, because he has foreseen that I should deprive myself of sleep all night to gain sufficient time to examine all which is before me. The keen admiration which seizes me in viewing so many varieties, most of them new and unknown to science, has forced me to become a draughtsman."
From Montevideo the vessel, L'Étoile, proceeded to Rio Janeiro. In one of his excursions Commerson noticed some trees having a rosy mauve or magenta tint, which further examination showed him was given them by their brilliantly colored bracts. They were trees of a new genus, which he named Bougainvillea, after his commander. The genus has become familiar in conservatories. Returning to the Rio de la Plata, Commerson declined an invitation from the viceroy, Don Francisco Bucarelli, to go with him across the Andes to Chili and Peru. Proceeding onward again in November and December, 1707, the expedition sailed into
