tropical

O Litoral do Brasil Meridional

This botanical study of meridional Brazilian flora was conducted in 1929. Written in Portuguese, it is lavishly illustrated with black-and-white photographs. Frederico Carlos Hoehne (1882-1959) was a Brazilian botanist associated with the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro and the Institute of Botany in São Paulo. He surveyed the botany of Brazil’s interior and published numerous studies and articles on the local flora.

Isthmus of Panama: History of the Panama Railroad

More than six decades before the Panama Canal, a trans-Isthmian railroad carried thousands of travelers every month between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Crossing in this manner represented a third option to people (and freight) traveling to California (recently added to U.S. territory as a result of the war with Mexico) from the eastern United States. They could now avoid the perilous voyage around the Cape of Good Hope as well as the long trek across the great plains and Rocky Mountains.

Tropical Fishes of the East Indies

Samuel Fallours was working for the Dutch East India Company in the early 1700s on the island of Ambon (part of present day Indonesia) as a clergyman’s assistant. Having an artistic talent, he made drawings of local fish, crustaceans, and other marine organisms from the Indian Ocean. The illustrations he drew, so vivid and bright, even surrealistic, are considered to be among the finest natural history illustrations ever made.