340 Linnean Society. [May 24, 



the morals of the poorer classes. Thus he is regarded as the founder 

 of Savings' Banks in France ; and his efforts were always strenuously 

 directed to the amelioration of prisons and of prison discipline, and 

 the abolition of the punishment of death. As a politician he sat in 

 the Chamber constantly in the left centre, of which he was one of 

 the most influential members, although he rarely took a prominent 

 part in the debates. 



M. Benjamin Delessert was a distinguished patron of the arts, of 

 literature and of science, the professors of which owe much to his 

 zeal and liberality. His herbarium has long been regarded as one 

 of the richest in the world ; and a recent publication by M. Lasegue, 

 entitled ' Musee Botanique de M. Benjamin Delessert,' Paris, 8vo, 

 1845, gives an interesting account of the numerous collections of 

 which it is composed. There are few systematic botanists who have 

 published extensively in recent times who have not derived advan- 

 tage from consulting its stores, which were always opened with the 

 utmost liberality to the use of students and men of science. His bo- 

 tanical library too, consisting of upwards of 4000 volumes, formed an 

 admirable and indispensable appendage to his collections. In 1820 

 M. Delessert commenced the publication of a series of figures chiefly 

 from specimens in his own herbarium, illustrative of DeCandoUe's 

 great work, and issued at intervals five volumes, each of 100 plates, 

 under the title of ' Icones Selectse Plantarum quas in Systemate 

 Universali ex Herbariis Parisiensibus praesertim ex Lessertiano de- 

 scripsit Aug. Pyr. DeCandolle, ex archetypis speciminibus a P. J. 

 F. Turpin delineatse.' The ' Florae Senegambiae Tentamen,' edited 

 by MM. Guillemin, Perrottet and A. Richard, was also published at 

 his expense. 



M. Benjamin Delessert had early commenced the formation of a 

 collection of Shells, but these were until within the last few years of 

 comparatively little importance. The purchase, however, of Du- 

 fresne's collection, of Teissier's, and more particularly of that of 

 Lamarck, to which great additions had been made while in the pos- 

 session of Prince Massena, rendered M. Delessert's cabinet of Shells 

 one of the finest and most valuable that exists. As in the case of his 

 herbarium, he was careful to render it useful to science, and he has 

 within the last few years published several parts of a magnificent 

 work entitled ' Recueil de Coquilles decrites par Lamarck dans son 

 Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans Vertebres et non encore figu- 

 rees,' Paris, 1841, &c., fol. This has since been followed up by a 

 still more splendid contribution to science, entitled ' Illustrations 



