430 MEMOIR OF LOUIS-CLAUDE-MARIE RICHARD. 



hoped to dissect. It was on the 7th of June, 1821, that 

 science lost lier ardent votary, at the age of 67 years. 



Though the works which Louis Richard has published are 

 but few in number, yet he is indisputably the man, who has 

 in his time contributed in the greatest degree to the progress 

 of botany; and the influence which he has exercised will be 

 eminently displayed upon the labours of those who are im- 

 bued with his principles, and follow in his track. No one 

 ever carried farther the art of scanning nature in her minu- 

 test details: the difficulty of any particular point of research 

 was the very reason why he chose to investigate it ; the most 

 complicated organization interested him the deepest; and he 

 would spend whole months in patiently following out any 

 observation, of which the elucidation promised to clear up a 

 still obscure point. He possessed the art of design in an 

 eminent degree; all his drawings are accompanied with the 

 minutest details, executed with remarkable clearness and pre- 

 cision ; for he well knew that it is solely by such analyses 

 that any happy combinations can be formed. His writings 

 are sometimes in a negligent style; but there is not one 

 among them which does not contain some novel and profound 

 observation ; and the few publications which he has left be- 

 hind him amply suffice to render his name illustrious. 

 His A}ialiisis of the Fruit is absolutely and entirely new, 

 and leaves nothing to be desired. He has examined and 

 thoroughly elucidated those most difficult Families, the Gra- 

 Minece, Orchi'Iea', Ili/drocharklece, and Orchidece, <£•(?., and 

 he is the man who has inspired the present generation with 

 that partiality for strict research and close profound ex- 

 amination, which essentially characterizes the French School 

 of Naturalists. 



Richard left an immense number of inedited materials. 

 As he sought for general laws, so he had studied the minutest 

 cryptogamic plant with equal earnestness as the most com- 

 plicated organization, and many of the most important dis- 

 coveries made for fifty years may be seen in his manuscripts. 



