Description
Autograph Letter Signed ‘Bonpland’, addressed “Madame”, announcing his wife’s recovery of her health, and expressing profuse thanks for his correspondent’s care of “notre petite Emma” (Bonpland’s stepdaughter). In French. 1½ pages 10 x 8 inches, very fine. 18 January 1815. Rare. Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland (1773 – 1858), French explorer and botanist who travelled with Alexander von Humboldt in Latin America from 1799 to 1804. The Empress Josephine installed him as superintendent over the gardens at Malmaison, where many seeds he had brought from the Americas were cultivated. In 1816, he took various European plants to Buenos Aires, where he was elected professor of natural history. He soon left his post, however, to explore the interior of South America.