Rare trove of puerto rican plants and creatures illustrations present in the country – repeating islands

flora-slide02

El Nuevo Día reports that an accumulation of old illustrations and manuscripts present in a museum which was being renovated, show the job of Domingo Bello y Espinosa, an innovator in bio-diversity studies.

It came like a surprise the material—which might be considered among the first great creates Puerto Rican flora and fauna—was found in the middle of the restoration of the non-scientific museum, interspersed along with other non-related material, 5,218 kilometers from Puerto Rico, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, The country.

Domingo Bello y Espinosa, a Spanish lawyer who emigrated to Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, in 1848, studied and cataloged the bio-diversity from the island like a pastime throughout the 3 decades he resided there. Although his jobs are mainly on flora, additionally, it includes a few examples of wildlife.

It had been an impressive find, but especially so for any College of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras biology professor, Eugenio Santiago Valentín, who within the last twenty five years has researched the job of Bello y Espinosa.

The newspaper reports the discovery, which was not published, required devote March 2015 in the Municipal Museum of proper Arts of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. There, inside a closet, they found two volumes of manuscripts, 14 booklets, along with a packet of loose sheets, all fashioned by Bello and Espinosa throughout his three-decade remain in Puerto Rico.

The finding includes around 500 sheets of illustrations of Puerto Rican plants and creatures, some colored in watercolors, some in pencil, and a few incomplete. Within the booklets, the vegetation is organized by families, and one of these is devoted to diurnal and nocturnal butterflies there’s also prints of caterpillars.

El Nuevo Día quotes Santiago Valentín, who stated, “Everything is within good condition. The entire package was tied together, and it is condition of upkeep is surprising (despite being about 150 years of age). [. . .] Additionally towards the artistic element, they’re documentary elements. You will find endemic and native-endemic species. They serve, furthermore, like a testimonial document from the exotic species which were already contained in Puerto Rico in the center of the 1800s.Inches

For full article (in Spanish), see http://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/locales/nota/hallantesorodeflorayfaunaboricuaenespana-2290373/

Resourse: https://repeatingislands.com/2017/02/13/rare-trove-of-puerto-rican-flora-and-fauna-illustrations-found-in-the country/