tlip Qiial (li's TuiltM'ies, and some of tlie new boulcvnrils of the French metropolis, 

 uikKt the (li'iiomination of American Oaks t/urfi/six years old. 



Ill ackiiowledjj^ment of the services I had thus rendered hira, Mr. Midianx 

 ]irescjitcd nio with a copy of the French edition of his niaf^nificent \vorl<, beauti- 

 fully bound, in three volumes, and containing a double set of plates, the plain 

 and the colored. 



Mr. Miclmux's person was tall, stron<rly built, but not corpulent llis com- 

 plexion was fair; he was slightly ]H)ck-nuirked, and possessed prominent features. 

 His light blue eyes had a peculiar expression, which startled me at first, llis 

 countenance was stern and cold on first approach ; but it smoothed off and 

 brightened gradually as he spoke and became more fiimiliar; his utterance, in 

 the beginning somewhat slow and cautious, became rapid and impressive, and his 

 conversation gay and even humorous. His manners were quite simple and un- 

 aflected, frank and lively — they were altogether those of an open-hearted country 

 gentleman, in whose presence, young as I was at the time, I could feel neither 

 emliarrassment nor shyness. 



I do not think that since this interview with Michaux his position and pursuits 

 underwent much change. To the very last day of his life he was fortunate enough 

 to retain his health and remarkable activity of body and mind. The main point 

 of his arboricultural experiments was to turn to advantage those lands, called 

 heaths, which, in France alone, do not cover less than two millions of acres, and 

 were considered utterly sterile. Through forty years of experiments performed 

 by him on the large demesnes belonging to the Central Society of Agriculture 

 and to Mr. Delamarre, he has ascertained that such lands could be improved and 

 rendered productive by the cultivation of certain resinous trees, which succeed 

 well in such soils. Of all the American and European pines with wliich he has 

 experimented, Michaux gives the preference to the Russian Pine, Pi7ius sylvestris, 

 which, in his letter to the President of the American Philosophical Society, above 

 mentioned, he recommends warmly to the jiarticular attention of the agriculturists 

 of the Northern and Middle States of the Union. 



"With the view of remedying the scarcity of wood under which this country is 

 beginning to suffer, through the rapid and improvident destruction of the native 

 forests, Michaux recommends also to the American people the cultivation of bushy 

 or spreading trees, producing copses, or Taillis, to which he has applied a special 

 mode of culture, more rational and more favorable to the development of vegeta- 

 tion, and, consequently more profitable to the landholders. 



We are informed by the same letter that Michaux was then preparing for publica- 

 tion a work in which he intended succinctly to develop his ideas on those interest- 

 ing subjects, and to lay open the results of his observations and practical experience, 

 for the particular benefit of the farmers and landholders of the United States. 



Michaux's last days were thus passed traiujuilly, dividing his time between his 

 favorite occupations of arboriculture and the society of a few friends, among 

 whom the most intimate were President Seguier, Messrs. jSIacarel, D'Andre and 

 Yilmorin. Louis Philippe himself, who had known him in this country, never 

 ceased to show him the greatest esteem and affection. He was always ha})i)y to 

 see some transatlantic acquaintance. All the Americans who have seen him in 

 Paris, or at his country residence of Vaureal, can testify to the urbanity of his 

 manners and to the cordiality with which he received his visitors. In conversa- 

 tion with Americans nothing afforded him more pleasure than the subject of this 

 country. He listened with amazement to the wonderful accounts of its progress, 

 of the rapid increase of its population, of its wealth and resources, of its success in 

 war and in diplomacy. The names of new cities and innumerable towns, located 



