LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 9 1 



family removed southward, travelling leisurely from one place 

 to another in the southern provinces of France. 



Whilst at Angouleme, Bentham's attention was first turned 

 to Botany, by his mother possessing a copy of De Candolle's 

 ' Flore Francaise,' and Cleorge, taking it up accidentally, was 

 struck with the dichotomous tables for the determination o£ the 

 plants, a plan which at once commended itself to his methodical 

 mind. Grathering the first plant he saw, he tried to run it down 

 by the aid o£ that book, and was long hindered by the articulation 

 of the stamens of his subject. Salvia pratensis; but persevering, 

 he succeeded in determining it, and Ins success induced him to 

 prosecute the study. 



At Montauban Beutham spent many months, afterwards 

 looking back upon them as the happiest period of his life. He 

 was entered as student of the Faculte de Theologie at Tours 

 near by, and his time out of college was given up to drawing, 

 botany, and music. As a proof of his bodily vigour at that time, 

 he often boasted that when at that place he attended thirty-four 

 balls between Twelfth-night and Shrove Tuesday, thirteen of which 

 were consecutive, lasting from nine at night to the same hour the 

 next day. 



During the next few years his life w^as very varied in its occupa- 

 tions. He studied exotic plants, besides insects, and philosophy 

 with John Stuart Mill, then a guest of his father for some 

 mouths ; he was his father's farm manager of an estate of 2000 

 acres, near Montpellier, his eldest brother having lost his life by 

 an accident some years before. Under his close methodical 

 application the farms and vineyards rapidly improved, and were 

 very profitable; but he did not neglect his botany, for he found 

 time for herborizations in the Pyrenees and the Cevennes, and 

 spare hours were given to translating his uncle Jeremy Ben- 

 tham's ' Chrestomathia ' into French, which came out in 1823. 



He visited England in 1823 to buy agricultural implements, 

 and to inquire how further improvements might be effected in 

 his Montpellier estate. But on his return he was hindered from 

 doing all he wished by provincial jealou.sy, wiiich led finally to 

 the relinquishing of the estate in 1826, and the return of the 

 family to England. Soon after his arrival in this couutry he 

 took a tour through England and Scotland, taking letters of 

 introduction to the leading botanists. In 1826 he was elected 

 Fellow of the Linnean Society, and in the following year was 

 proposed by Robert Brown for the Royal Society, but withdrew 

 his candidature in common with several other scientific men, 

 on the election of a President not in accordance with their views. 

 In the same year he brought out his ' Catalogue des plautes 

 indigenes des Pyrenees.' 



Jeremy Btntham, his uncle, now opened up a new career to 

 him, inviting him to devote some of his time m arranging MSS. 

 for the press, assuring him that he would make provision for him 



