This book examines the study of natural history in the Spanish empire in the years 1750-1850. During this period, Spain made strenuous efforts to survey, inventory, and exploit the natural productions of her overseas possessions, orchestrating a series of scientific expeditions and cultivating and displaying American fauna and flora in metropolitan gardens and museums. This book assesses the cultural significance of natural history, emphasizing the figurative and utilitarian value with which eighteenth-century Spaniards invested natural objects, from globe-trotting elephants to three-legged chickens. It considers how the creation, legitimization and dissemination of scientific knowledge reflected broader questions of imperial power and national identity.