142 Linnean Society. [May 24, 



Augustin Pyramus DeCandolle, a botanist of such [distinguished 

 eminence as to demand from us a more than ordinary tribute of re- 

 spect. Descended from a family which came originally from Mar- 

 seilles, but had for more than two centuries been settled at Geneva, 

 and which towards the close of the sixteenth century furnished one 

 of that illustrious band of classical printers who united in so high a 

 degree the study of letters with the art of transmitting them to pos- 

 terity, he was born in the latter city, of which his father had been 

 Premier Syndic, on the 4th of February, 1778. His youthful incli- 

 nations were turned towards literature rather than science ; but a 

 residence in the country awakened in him a taste for botany, which 

 his attendance on the lectures of Professor Vaucher confirmed, and 

 at the age of sixteen his path in life was determined, and he devoted 

 himself to the cultivation of botanical science. 



In 1795 he paid his first visit to Paris, where he attended the lec- 

 tures of Cuvier, Lamarck, Fourcroy, Vauquelin, and other distin- 

 guished professors ; and when Geneva was a few years afterwards 

 incorporated with the French Republic he returned to the metropolis, 

 where he fixed his residence for several years, attending the medical 

 classes and pursuing his botanical studies at the same time under 

 Jussieu and Desfontaines, with both of whom he formed a close and 

 intimate friendship. Soon after taking up his abode in Paris he com- 

 menced the publication of his ' Plantarum Historia Succulentarum,' 

 which was speedily followed by his ' Astragalogia;' and in 1802 he 

 began to furnish the text to Redoute's magnificent work, ' Les Lilia- 

 cees,' which he supplied up to the 4th volume. In 1805 he was as- 

 sociated with Lamarck in the third edition of that excellent natu- 

 ralist's ' Flore Frangaise,' to which he prefixed an introduction, en- 

 titled ' Principes Elementaires de Botanique,' and containing the 

 outlines of a course of lectures which he had delivered in the pre- 

 vious year at the College de France. A ' Synopsis Plantarum in 

 Flora Gallica descriptarum ' followed in 1806. He had previously, 

 in 1 804, connected his medical and botanical studies in an ' Essai 

 sur les Proprietes Medicales des Plantes, comparees avec leur clas- 

 sification naturelle,' of which a second edition appeared in 1816. 

 At an early period of his residence in Paris M. DeCandolle took an 

 active part in the formation, under the auspices of Baron Benjamin 

 Delessert, of the Societe Philanthropique for the supply of ceconomical 

 soups to the poor and other charitable purposes, of which he con- 

 tinued for several years to be the secretary. The Society for the 

 Encouragement of National Industry is also stated to have been 

 formed under his direction and management. 



In 1806 he ceased to be permanently resident in Paris. He re- 



