1842.] Linnean Society. 143 



ceived in that year a commission from the Imperial Government to 

 collect information on the state of botany and agriculture throughout 

 the empire, and in pursuance of this commission he took for six suc- 

 cessive years annual journeys into the several departments, the re- 

 sults of which are contained in his ' Rapports sur les Voyages Bota- 

 niques et Agronomiques faits dans les Departemens de I'Empire 

 Fran^ais,' which were published in a collected form in 1813. 



Soon after his appointment to this important task he quitted Paris 

 for Montpellier, where he became Professor of Botany in the Faculty 

 of Medicine in 1807, and a Chair of Botany having been established 

 in the Faculty of Sciences of that Academy in 1810, he attached 

 himself with renewed ardour to the promotion of his favourite pur- 

 suit. Under his direction the Botanic Garden was greatly improved, 

 and a Catalogue, with descriptions of many new species, was pub- 

 lished by him in 1813, in which year his ' Theorie Elementaire de la 

 Botanique' also made its first appearance. Many valuable memoirs, 

 scattered through various publications, but chiefly taken from the 

 ' Annales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle,' were in this year col- 

 lected into a volume. 



After the second Restoration of the Bourbons, circumstances oc- 

 curred which induced him to quit Montpellier and return to his na- 

 tive city, now restored to independence. A Chair of Natural History 

 was instituted expressly for him, of which he took possession in 

 January 1816, and the Botanic Garden, established towards the 

 close of the last century wdth the assistance of funds bequeathed for 

 that purpose by the celebrated Bonnet, was greatly augmented, partly 

 by assistance derived from the Government, and partly by voluntary 

 subscription. Several Fasciculi of the ' Plantes rares du Jardin de 

 Geneve' attest the interest which he took in its success. 



In 1816 he visited England for the purpose of consulting the Her- 

 baria of our country with a view to the general system of plants, the 

 publication of which he then meditated, and during his stay here 

 communicated to the Linnean Society a paper entitled " Remarks on 

 two Genera of Plants to be referred to the Family of Rosacea." These 

 are Kerria and Purshia, previously strangely misunderstood, and as 

 strangely misplaced in distant and very dissimilar families. His me- 

 moir on this subject, the only one by M. DeCandolle which has a 

 place in our ' Transactions,' is contained in the twelfth volume. 



In 1818 appeared the first volume of his intended ' Regni Vege- 

 tabilis Systema Naturale,' which was followed by a second in 1821. 

 But the plan of this work was obviously too vast for accomplishment 

 by individual industry, however great ; and after the publication of 

 these two volumes, M. DeCandolle recognized the necessity of con- 



