M. ADRIEN DE JUSSIEU. 173 
among themselves had become his chief oceupation ; it was, so to speak, 
the inheritance he had derived from his forefathers, and upon which he 
concentrated all the faculties of his mind. 
I cannot pass over in silence an article on * Botanical Taxonomy,’ 
published, in 1848, in the * Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles, and 
which it is hard to believe yet continues but little known, or well-nigh 
forgotten. This fragment, of barely seventy pages, is, in my opinion, 
one of the very best essays on Philosophical Botany that has appeared 
since the days of Linnæus; the author takes a review in it of all the 
different systems which have been started from the time of Ray and 
Rivinus. It is a true History of Botany, and a critical history too, 
which discusses and decides upon the systems with that superior talent 
and exquisite discrimination which eminently characterized Adrien de 
Jussieu. His early partiality for literature is seen throughout, and the 
taste of the youth adorns the mature judgment of the ripened savant. 
No man was more completely versed in botanical literature ; his library, 
which had been commenced by his forefathers, contained all botanical 
books, even the most ancient; and their possessor was erudite, in the 
strictest sense of the word. It was his fixed intention to crown his 
long labours in the cause by a complete history of his favourite science. 
For many years had he been occupied in collecting the materials for a 
work which is still a desideratum, and which he alone, of all men in 
France, was capable of performing—when death stepped prematurely 
between, and put a close to his labours. 
He has however left a book which has made his name popular 
among the young: it is his ‘Elementary Treatise on Botany,’ a work 
simply and elegantly written, clear and methodical, in which most of 
the important questions concerning the science are handled with a suf- 
ficiency of detail for the learned, yet with a simplicity which makes 
them intelligible to beginners. The value of the book is shown by its 
having already reached a seventh edition ; nearly 30,000 copies having 
been sold in ten years; and it is moreover translated into the principal 
languages of Europe. 
And now, Gentlemen, I have set Adrien de Jussieu before you as a 
learned writer, and I have yet to speak of him as a Professor and a 
member of the Academy of Science, and to recall to your minds the 
period, unfortunately but short, in which he shared your labours. Tt 
was in 1845 that he was appointed to succeed M. Auguste de St. Hilaire 
