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40 Laelia sp. (Fig. 14D) was collected not far from the limits of modern Central America. Sharing the fortune of the other Spanish botanical expeditions, Malaspina never saw the publication of the botanical results of his voyage. His proposal to the king for a political reorganization of the empire brought him charges of treason to the state. Imprisoned in Galicia from 1796 to 1802, Malaspina was liberated thanks to mediation by Napoleon but had to leave Spain and return to his native Italy, where he died in 1810. Malaspina’s was doubtless the best organized of all Spanish scientific expeditions to America. An important factor for this was the fact that it was the only one which was structured along strict military lines. The Royal Botanic Expedition of Sessé and Mociño to New Spain (1787-1803). After the Jesuits were expelled from Spain in 1767, an original copy in five volumes of the manuscripts of Francisco Hernández was found in the library of the Imperial College of Madrid. Casimiro Gómez Ortega, director of the Royal Botanical Garden, decided to publish the manuscripts, but found himself with two problems: the work by Hernández was no longer up to date and the original drawings were missing. In the meantime, in January 1785, the Spanish physician Martín de Sessé y Lacasta (1751-1808), who served in Cuba in the squadron of the Marquis del Socorro, proposed to Gómez Ortega the idea of establishing a botanical garden and a chair of Botany in the Mexican capital (Fig. 15A). As he wrote: “Considering you one of the lovers of the flora, I dare to interrupt your occupations with the following discourse aimed at making them shine and give fruit in this part of the New World” (Letter from Sessé to Gómez Ortega, January 30, 1785). The idea had already been expressed by Löfling, who in a letter to Linné dated June 24, 1753, writes: “I gave him [the Marquis of Grimaldi] to think that it would be of advantage to go to Mexico, where Hernández had been, but ob fata seculi (= for destiny’s fate) he left his observations obscure and imprecise” (Muñoz Garmendia, & Sanz Álvarez, 1990:25). The idea to complete the publication of the work of Hernández with documents and drawings that could eventually be found in Mexico, and the timely proposal of Sessé, where the motives for the promulgation by King Charles III of the Royal Order of October 27, LANKESTERIANA LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009. 1786. The establishment of the Botanical Garden in New Spain, the Chair of Botany (the first in America) and the formation of an expedition that should “form the drawings, collect the natural productions and complete the writings of Francisco Hernández” , was ordered (Maldonado Polo, 1996: 25). The expedition was therefore organized as an extension of the enterprise that had started two centuries earlier. It was composed initially by Martín de Sessé, Vicente Cervantes, José Longinos Martínez, Juan del Castillo and Jaime Senseve. The Garden and the Chair of Botany were inaugurated in May, 1788 (Fig. 15B). A short time later, during the second course of botany (1789), a brilliant student stood out who was destined to have a prominent role in the expedition at the side of Sessé: the Creole José Mariano Mociño (1757-1820) (Fig. 15C). In 1787 Sessé had already started his field activities, which extended initially until 1794. In different excursions, joined by Mociño after 1790, the expeditionaries explored the central regions of Mexico, including the Pacific Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. Other itineraries brought members of the expedition to the north of Mexico, California and the coast of the Canadian Pacific. Of particular interest to our study is the excursion of Mociño to the Gulf coast (1793-1794) where he seems to have explored the region to the south of Veracruz and adjacent Tabasco. “Southeastern Mexico, as far as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, belongs also to biological Central America” (Williams, 1956:1) (Fig. 15, D—F; Tab. 3). In the Torner collection of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation we find beautiful orchid illustrations, drawn by the draftsmen of the expedition, Juan de Dios Vicente de la Cerda y Atanasio Echeverría y Godoy (Fig. 16—18; 19B—C). The term given to the expedition expired in October, 1794. Since the territories of the southern regions of the Vicekingdom -the border of Guatemala- had not yet been explored, Sessé asked for an extension, which was approved by Royal Order of September 15, 1794. It was resolved that the expedition should explore, for a period of two years, the kingdom of Guatemala and simultaneously the Windward islands. Ever since the expedition of Malaspina had touched Central American lands, clear consciousness existed that these territories could not be left out by the members of the expedition to New Spain.
ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America A B C Figure 14. A — Dendrobium mexicanum. In Presl, C., 1827, (2): 102. B — Catasetum sp. Illustration by José Guío in Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid, 1989: plate 137. C — Ionopsis utricularioides (Sw.) Lindl. Illustration by José Guío in Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid, 1989: plate 1260. D — Laelia sp. Illustration by Francisco Lindo in Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid, 1989: plate 198. D LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009. 41
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