324 Linnean Society. [May 24, 



Council of State, and many motives combined to induce him to ac- 

 cept this appointment ; but after a fortnight's consideration he re- 

 solved to refuse it, as incompatible with his favourite pursuit. Living 

 at a distance from an)' large collections, having no teacher, and but 

 few books, his observations were at first limited to the plants of his 

 immediate neighbourhood, which he submitted to a rigorous exami- 

 nation. His earlier contributions to science were published in the 

 ' Bulletin de la Societe des Sciences Physiques, &c. d'Orleans,' in 

 Desvaux's ' Journal de Botanique,' and in the ' Bulletin de la So- 

 ciete Philomatique.' He next entered on the preparation of an 

 ' Histoire complete des Pistils et des Fruits des Plantes de la France,' 

 for which he collected extensive materials, but finding that its com- 

 pletion would require many years of travel and observation, he de- 

 termined to extract from it a series of memoirs calculated to throw 

 light on some of the more important points of vegetable phj'^siology. 

 With this view he published in the ' Annales,' and in the ' Memoires 

 du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris,' several valuable memoirs, 

 the most remarkable being the first of a series " Surles Plantes aux- 

 quelles on attribue un placenta central libre," which at once placed 

 him in the rank of the more scientific and philosophical botanists of 

 the day. About this time an opportunity offered itself of observing 

 the vegetation of a warmer country, and he eagerly embraced the 

 permission given him by the Duke of Luxemburg, who was ap- 

 pointed ambassador at Rio, to accompany him to Brazil, in the 

 southern provinces of which empire, in the Cisplatine province, and 

 in Paraguay, he travelled during the six years from 1816 to 1822. 

 His various journeys reached an extent of 2500 French leagues, and 

 his collection amounted to about 7000 species of plants, of most of 

 which he made analyses on the spot, 2000 birds, 16,000 insects, and 

 129 quadrupeds, besides reptiles and other animals. While in Brazil 

 he continued his communications to the ' Memoires du Museum 

 d'Histoire Naturelle ' ; and immediately after his return he set about 

 the publication of the results of his travels in the various depart- 

 ments of botanical science. These were chiefly given in an ' Aper9u 

 d'un Voyage dans I'lnterieur du Bresil,' in the ' Memoires du 

 Museum;' in his ' Histoire des Plantes les plus remarquables du 

 Bresil et du Paraguay,' 4to, Paris, 1824 ; in his ' Plantes usuelles des 

 Bresiliens,' 4to, Paris, 1824-8 ; in the ' Flora Brasilice Meridionalis,' 

 of which 24 fasciculi, forming 2 vols, and a part of a third, were 

 published by him with the assistance of Adrien de Jussieu, Cambes- 

 .sedes and other botanists, between 1825 and 1833; in his 'Voyage 

 dans le Province de Rio Janeiro et de Minas Geraes,' Paris, 1830, 



