248 Biographical Account of [Apri 



and has continued to be ranked among the most talented 

 and classical works. It was when he was finishing this 

 work that De Candolle became acquainted with him. Des- 

 fontaines permitted him to work with him, furnished him 

 with the means for extending his knowledge, guided him 

 by his advice in the method of observing the characters of 

 plants, and treated him with the tender feelings of a father. 

 Most of those who have obtained a scientific name in France, 

 during the present century, can boast of a similar intimacy. 



M. M. De Mirbel, and Adr. de Jussieu have expressed 

 their gratitude in their eulogium upon him. When he had 

 completed this great work he directed his strenuous atten- 

 tion to the garden, in reference to its management, and the 

 nomenclature of the plants, and even in his old age he was 

 to be seen carrying books, and his herbarium, for the pur- 

 pose of correcting errors which had been committed during 

 the sowing and transplanting of the plants. Neither the 

 heat of the sun nor the inclemency of the season repressed 

 his zeal in the discharge of his duty. He published three 

 editions of a catalogue in 1804, 1815, and 1829. 



The establishment of the Annates des Museum, afforded 

 him an opportunity of describing the new plants which 

 flowered in the garden. From 1802 to 1807 he wrote those 

 notices in this work which have contributed so much to 

 Science, and in 1807 and 1808, he published the beautiful 

 plates of Aubriet, who had accompanied Tournefort, repre- 

 senting the plants of the east. This work testified the 

 great esteem which Desfontaines entertained for the memory 

 of Tournefort, and served to remove a number of miscon- 

 ceptions which botanists had fallen into with regard to the 

 discoveries of this traveller. 



During two or three years, in conjunction with De Can- 

 dolle, he published a portion of a work containing abridged 

 descriptions of plants cultivated in the Jardin des Plantes, 

 but the labour was so great that the intention of completing 

 it was given up. In 1809, he published his Histoire des 

 Arbres et Arbrisseaux, containing an account of those trees 

 and shrubs which may be cultivated in France. Its tendency 

 was practical, and he was assisted in it by M. Deleuze. 

 After the completion of these works Desfontaines began to 

 feel a degree of ennui, for he had never possessed any taste 

 for the world. During the revolution he was in the habit 



