852 JEAN BAPTISTE EDOUARD BORNET. 



There are, then, two distinct classes in Boissier's works, one archae- 

 ological in spirit, devoted to the reconstruction of what no longer 

 exists; one interpretative, devoted to accessible records. There is 

 no absolute cleavage between the two. His reconstructions proceed 

 carefully on the basis of the known. His interpretations do not end 

 with what is before us; they reconstruct personalities and ideals — 

 Cicero and his friends, Tacitus and the method of the ancient his- 

 torian. Both undertakings are of the highest order. They depend 

 on a quality without which Classical studies or any other studies are 

 dead — the creative imagination. Boissier modestly said of his 

 Catiline that it contained nothing new; the elements in it are not new, 

 but they are transformed, as by some chemical change, into a new 

 substance, a work of art. 



E. K. Rand. 



JEAN BAPTISTE EDOUARD BORNET (1828-1911) 



Foreign Honorary Member in Class II, Section 2, 1893. 



Jean Baptiste Edouard Bornet, born at Guerigny, Nievre, France 

 on September 2, 1828, was the son of Pierre Fran9ois and Elizabeth 

 Justine (Reveille) Bornet. He became interested in botany in early 

 life and was specially influenced by his work with the distinguished 

 mycologist, Leveille, while pursuing his medical studies in Paris. 

 He obtained his degree in medicine in 1855. Shortly before that date 

 he became acquainted with Gustave Thuret, a wealthy amateur, 

 interested in the study of marine algae whom he assisted in his work 

 at first in Cherbourg. Thuret in consequence of feeble health was 

 obliged later to reside on the shores of the Mediterranean and in 1857 

 he purchased at Antibes near Nice an estate where he was joined by 

 Bornet who acted in the double capacity of physician and co-worker 

 in botany. The garden at Antibes soon became known as the finest 

 private botanical garden in Europe and there Bornet remained until 

 the death of Thuiet in 1875. 



The garden was then purchased by Mme. Henri Thuret who desired 

 that Bornet should remain in charge of it but feeling it to be his duty 

 to prepare for publication the results of the algological work of Thuret 

 and himself, he declined the offer and removed to Paris where he 



