2 Martins on the Life and Labours of DeCandolle. 



DeCandoUe was without doubt the Linnseus of our age. In 

 the right understanding of what he has accomphshed, hes the true 

 measure both of his own greatness and of the work done by his 

 predecessor, — lies the sum of the progress which botany has made 

 since the departure of Linnseus from the scene of his activity. 

 The importance of systematic arrangement and classification was 

 the leading idea in both their minds ; and consequently both have 

 been especially useful as registrators of the vegetable kingdom. 

 Both, however, were influenced and guided by the ideas of vege- 

 table physiology and morphology which each had formed. The 

 systematic works of both, therefore, went hand in hand with their 

 general views, received from them their impulse and signification, 

 and reflected back the spirit which distinguishes their different 

 epochs. They are accordingly as different in their manner of 

 comprehending and of carrying out their ideas, as were the fun- 

 damental principles respecting the nature of plants which pre- 

 vailed in the time of each. There is, however, this essential dif- 

 ference between them. The thoughts which Linnseus embodied 

 in his system were his own creation. DeCandolle, on the other 

 hand, adopted the ideas of the French school, founded on the 

 natural method of A. L. de Jussieu, with the view to their full 

 development in an universal descriptive system of the vegetable 

 kingdom. We do not at present propose fully to trace the parallel 

 between Linnseus and DeCandolle, although some of its elements 

 will be indicated in the brief sketch of the life and labours of our 

 much-lamented friend : but it remains for the historian of botany 

 to exhibit in detail the relations which these two men sustained 

 to each other, and to the epochs in the progress of the science 

 distinguished by their names. 



Aug. Pyr. DeCandolle sprung from a noble family of Provence, 

 which, from religious considerations, removed to Geneva in the 

 year 1558. The younger Catholic branch of the family, still ex- 

 isting in Provence, is now represented by the Marquis DeCan- 

 dolle, with whom the Genevan botanist always maintained the 

 friendly relations of kindred. Augustin DeCandolle, the father 

 of our departed friend, was one of the first magistrates (premier 

 syndic) of the republic of Geneva. In the early years of his life, 

 the feeble health of the child gave much anxiety to his parents. 

 In his seventh year he suffered from an attack of acute hydroce- 

 phalus ; but fortunately conquered a disease so often fatal to child^ 

 hood, or which in other cases so frequently leaves behind a fee- 

 bleness of the mental powers. But the youth and man, with his 

 well-organized head, fitted for the most difficult processes of 

 thought, experienced no further ill effects from this distressing 

 malady. 



In the gymnasium {college) he was not distinguished, except 



