1^ Biographical Memoir of' Michel Adansdii. 



that he had been almost always occupied in observing. He men- 

 tions, with accuracy, how many plants, figures, and new ideas each 

 author had added to the general stock. He even gives a sort of 

 scale of the merit of the various systems that had appeared ; but 

 it is only according to their more or less perfect agreement with 

 his natural families, that he assigns to them any precedency. 

 This was putting himself at the head of all the botanists ; and, 

 in fact, he was not far from having such an opinion of himself. 

 He did not conceal in particular the sort of envy inspired in him 

 by the celebrity of the Sexual System of Linnaeus, one of the 

 most opposite to the natural relations of vegetables. The hope 

 of seeing it quickly fall into disrepute indeed consoled him for 

 a time; but in this he only shewed to what degree he was unac- 

 quainted with men, while it was upon his intimate knowledge 

 of them that Linnaeus founded almost all his success. 



Amiable, benevolent, surrounded by young enthusiasts, 

 whom he trained to become so many scientific missionaries; 

 careful to enrich his successive editions by their discoveries ; fa> 

 voured by the great, connected by an active correspondence 

 with the learned, anxious to make his science appear easy, ra- 

 ther than to render it solid and profound, the Swedish natu- 

 ralist daily saw his doctrine extend, in defiance of the resistance 

 opposed to it by the pride of individuals, and by national preju- 

 dices. 



Adanson, on the contrary, retaining his solitary habits, inac- 

 cessible in his cabinet, without pupils, almost without friends, 

 holding intercourse with the world only through the medium of 

 his works, seemed to invest these works purposely with repul- 

 sive difficulties, as if he dreaded their too general diffusion. 



Instead of the simple and convenient nomenclature contrived 

 by Linnaeus, he gave arbitrary names to the different beings, 

 which no etymological relation fixed in the memory, and 

 even sometimes disdained to indicate their accordance with the 

 names employed by others. He even invented an orthography 

 of his own, which made his French look like some unknown 

 jargon. This he said was to represent the pronunciation bet- 

 ter. But, in order to have the pronunciation represented, it 

 would require first to be fixed; and how could a sound be fixed 

 of which no traces remain ? The pronunciation is also perpe- 



