Alexander Von Humboldt (1769-1859

This scientist made a six-thousand-mile expedition through the forests of Latin America marveling at "the stupendous display of wild and gigantic nature". In his lifetime he collected sixty thousand botanical specimens and identified 3500 species. Emerson called him "one of the wonders of the world, like Aristotle, like Julius Caesar, who appear from time to time, as if to show the possibilites of the human mind".