MEMOIR or LOUIS-CLAUDE-MARIE UICHARD. 431 



The true structure of the Mosses was detected by him prior 

 to Hedvvig, though he did not attribute the same functions 

 to their organs. 



Although the Institute, anxious to secure Richard to itself, 

 had nominated him to a vacant place in the Zoological Section, 

 it had never been suspected that the man who had laboured so 

 hard at botany should have found time to become thoroughly 

 master of any other part of Natural History. People in gene- 

 ral were not aware that, during his residence in America, he 

 had collected a great mass of valuable materials in Zoology, 

 Comparative Anatomy, and Mineralogy. It was only when 

 examining his manuscripts, his drawings, and the prepara- 

 tions which he kept in his cabinet, that any estimate could 

 be formed of the extent and variety of his acquirements ; and 

 then it was universally acknowledged, that the age had pro- 

 duced few individuals which could bear any comparison with 

 him. 



The works which we possess from the pen of Richard are 

 the following : — 



I. Elementary Dictionary of Botany, by BuUiard, revis- 

 ed and almost wholly recomposed. (Amsterdam, 1800.) 

 Besides many interesting dissertations, as those on the Berry, 

 Bulb, Vernation, Arillus, <£•<?., parts of the vegetable of which 

 Richard first explained the real nature and important func- 

 tions; this work is valuable on account of twelve plates re- 

 presenting all the modifications of the different organs of a 

 plant; and it also contains the completest and most philoso- 

 phical catalogue of the technical terms. 



II. Conimentatio de Convallaria Japonica, L., novum 

 genus constituente (Nouv. Journ. de Bot. torn ii., p. 1. 1807. 



III. Memoire sur les Ilydrocharidees, (Mem. de Tlnstit. 

 1811. p. 1.) 



IV. Demonstrations Botaniques, ou Analyse du Fruit, 

 considere en general^ par Richard, (publiees par Duval, 

 1808.) 



This is a work, which, by reason of its great conciseness, 

 the difficulty of the subject it treats, and the mass of accumu- 



