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500 lUOORAPIIICAL MEMOIR OF THE LATE F. A. MICHAUX. 



farmer of Beauce. She died cloven months after her marriage, leaving behind 

 her a son, tlio subject of tliis iiolice. 



Of the early lite of Franrois Andre Micliaux, I have not been able to collect 

 much information. Il is probable that he was Itrouglit up on the farm of Satory, 

 in the ])raetical school of his father and of one of his uncles, upon whom devolved, 

 after the dei)arture of the former, the sole manap;emeiit of this extensive royal 

 estate. It may be inferred, also, from his writings and instructive conversation, 

 that his collegiate education had not been neglected. 



His father, whose history is insej>aral)ly linked with that of his son, had devoted 

 all his life to the pro'gress of agriculture and the sciences; his main ambition had 

 been to effect something that might redound to the advantage of his native country, 

 and, with this view, he had early turned his attention to agriculture,**the advance- 

 ment of which, he had soon perceived, could not be more securely attained than 

 by enriching its domain willi such products of foreign climes as were unknown 

 to his own country, and susceptible of acclimation. In order to accom])lish his 

 object, he determined to visit new regions, possessing climates similar to that of 

 France, and to bring back thence such of their productions as might prove of 

 advantage to his native land. 



To ell'ect that purpose, he prepared himself by a proper course of studies, and 

 by devoting his particular attention to the science of botany, under the great 

 Bernard de Jussieu. He first visited England; he next made several explorations 

 in the mountains of Auvergne, and in the Pyrenees ; then in Spain ; and em- 

 barked afterwards for Persia, in the capacity of secretary to the French consul at 

 Ispahan, but, in reality, for the sole purpose of exploring that country, then almost 

 unknown to scientific men. From 1782 to 1785 he surveyed the whole of the 

 Persian provinces between the river Tigris and the Euphrates, and returned to 

 France with an extensive collection of specimens and a large quantity of seeds of 

 every kind. 



During the absence of the elder Michanx, the French government had been 

 ao-itating the important question of introducing into the forests of France such 

 exotic trees as would be calculated to increase the national resources, with respect 

 to naval constructions. The information which had been received from the United 

 States, in this regard, had been exceedingly encouraging; and Michaux, who had 

 just returned from Asia, was chosen for that particular errand, with instructiono 

 to procure for the royal nurseries all the young trees, shrul)S, and seeds he could 

 possil)ly send. In consequence, he made all proper ])reparations, and embarked 

 at L'Orient on the 25lh of August, 1785, taking with him his son, then only fifteen 

 vears of age, and a journeyman gardener of the name of Paul Saulnier, of whom I 

 shall speak hereafter. They landed at New York on the first of October following. 



At this remote period of time, I am altogether without record as to the move- 

 ments of young Michaux immediately after his landing on our shores. The only 

 source where I exi)ected, naturally, to obtain information, was the manuscript 

 journal in which his father was in the habit of registering'the daily incidents of 

 his eventful life, and which had been deposited by his son in the library of the 

 American Philosophical Society. Unfortunately, this journal has become incom- 

 plete through the absence of three of its fasciculi, containing the years 1785, 1786, 

 and 1790, which were lost in the shipwreck of the elder Michaux on the coast of 

 Holland. In the fasciculus of 1787, young Michaux's name appears for the first 

 time on the date of May 6, as accompanying his father in his exploration to the 

 sources of the Keovee River. In the next spring he is seen again with him, jour- 

 neying into the interior of Florida. He is afterwards mentioned several times as 

 being retained at the Charleston Nursery, either on account of ill health, or 



