SKETCH OF PIERRE BEL ON. 



^97 



Palmipedes — is precisely tliat of Cuvier which is taught in ele- 

 mentary books. Other correspondences of classification with the 

 classifications of Linnaeus and Cuvier will be found in the follow- 

 ing: table : 



The main classification of birds has thus not been materially 

 changed since 1555. The portrait of a wren is a sxDecimen of the 

 ordinary illustrations in " The Birds" (Fig. 4). 



Belon composed a treatise on agriculture,* in which was in- 

 cluded a list of exotic plants which it would be desirable to accli- 

 mate in France, and suggested the 

 foundation of an establishment 

 for that purpose. Something of 

 the kind was carried out under 

 Belon's direction by Rend de Bel- 

 lay on his estate of Touvoy, near 

 Mans. 



Besides the works already de- 

 scribed, Belon published a history 

 of conifers f and a treatise on the 

 funeral monuments and sepultur- 

 al usages of the ancients and the 

 substances used by them for the 

 preservation of bodies. J Accord- 

 ing to Renouard, he translated the treatise of Dioscorides into 

 French. He also made a version of Theophrastus's " History of 

 Plants," which has been lost. The magnitude of his works indi- 

 cates that he had an enormous capacity for labor. His writings 

 on anatomy, botany, agriculture, and medicine, as measured by 

 M. Grid, display a rare critical faculty, and nearly all his observa- 

 tions overreach the horizon of his epoch. 



A statue of the great naturalist was unveiled at Mans on the 

 9th of October, 1887, with an address by M. Grid. The portrait 

 we publish is a copy of the engraving that was prefixed to the 

 " Singularities," and represents Belon in his doctor's cap. 



* " Les remonstrances sur le defaut du labour et culture des plantes, et de la connois- 

 sance d'icelles, contenant la mani^re d'affranchir et apprivisoir les arbrcs sauvages," 1558. 



•j- " De arboribus coniferis, resiniferis, aliisque nonnuUis sempiterni f ronde virentibus," 

 1553. \ "De admirabili operum antiquorum prsestantia," 1553, 



Fig. 4.— The Wren (after Pierre Belon). 



