74 Biographical Notice of M. Lislet-Geoffroy. 



the Academy, is one of the works of M. Lislet-Geoffroy which 

 has been omitted in the catalogue of his scientific works. The 

 general map of the two islands of France and Bourbon, cited in 

 the notice, and in which, it will be recollected, I marked, in re- 

 gard to the first of these islands, the figure of the mountains, 

 had them indicated only at a very few points, and without any 

 of the details which are so well expressed in this. 



The father of Lislet-Geoffroy, as far as I remember the account 

 I have heard of him, was born at Paris, but his relations belonged 

 to Bretagne; Having gone to the Isle of France at some period 

 between 1730 and 1740, he there bought and married, according 

 to all the regular forms, a Caffre negress, whom I remember to 

 have seen when at a great age, and the object of the most affection- 

 ate attentions, in the pretty house which their excellent son had 

 built. The latter was then somewhat upwards of forty-five years 

 of age. He related to me, that Comraerson and Bernardin de 

 Saint Pierre had successively been guests in his father's house. 

 The former having undertaken to explore Bourbon, or rather 

 Muscareigne, Lislet, who was already acquainted with the coun- 

 try, was chosen as guide ; and the correspondent whom you 

 have just lost, then very young, also accompanied them. A 

 valuable and permanent memorial of this scientific excursion re- 

 mains on the plain of the Caffres, a nearly central plateau, ele- 

 vated 600 or 800 metres above the level of the sea. Lislet- 

 Geoffroy 's father had brought strawberry plants from Europe, 

 which he carefully cultivated in his garden at Port-Louis, but the 

 heat prevented them succeeding. By the advice of Commerson, 

 the impoverished plants were transported by the three travel- 

 lers to the plain of Caffres, where they prospered to such a de- 

 gree, that, on my arrival, the heights of the island were entirely 

 covered with them. The plants had in many places entirely 

 occupied the soil, and choked the indigenous vegetation. In 

 the fruit season, I saw, in 1801, spaces which appeared entirely 

 red with them ; and I may affirm, without exaggeration, that 

 one could not walk along the ground without staining the feet, 

 even above the ankles, with a kind of marmalade mingled with 

 volcanic ashes. 



Further Biographical Details ofM. Lislet-Geoffroy^ commu- 



