1855.] Linnean Society. 423 



vinciae Tambow," 1844; " Uber einige Comus-Arten aus der Ab- 

 theiluvg Theli/crania," 1845; "Monographie der Ga.ttur)g Ephedra," 

 1846 ; " Uber die Zimmtrosen," 1847. He succeeded Dr. Fischer 

 in the Directorship of the Imperial Botanic Garden at St. Peters- 

 burg in 1850, and continued to hold that office during the brief 

 remainder of his life. It was only in May last year that he was 

 elected a Foreign Member of the Linnean Society, and we have 

 already to record his name in our annual obituarj\ His death 

 took place at St. Petersburg in the night between the 24th and 

 the 25th of February of the present year. 



Charles Francois Brisseau de Mirbel, Member of the Academy of 

 Sciences of the Institute of France, was bom at Par^o in the year 1776. 

 He applied himself early to the study of Botany under the distin- 

 guished Professors of the Museum, and in the year 1797, we find 

 him accompanying Plamond, the celebrated investigator of the 

 Pyrenees, as one of his pupils, in his two Journeys to Mont Perdu, 

 one of the most remarkable summits of the Pyrenean Chain. Shortly 

 cifter he became Director of the Garden at Malmaison, in which 

 the Empress Josephine cultivated a magnificent collection of exotic 

 plants. This connection with the Imperial Family introduced him 

 to the notice of Louis Bonaparte, whom he accompanied to Holland, 

 in the capacity of his private Secretary, and by whom he was nomi- 

 nated Director of the Dutch School of Painting at Paris and at Rome. 

 In 1 808, the Class of Sciences of the Institute (of which he was 

 previously a correspondent) elected him a Member in the place of 

 V'entenat ; and about the same time he was named Professeur-Ad- 

 joint of Vegetable Physiology and Botany at the Faculte des Sciences. 

 Soon after the restoration he began to take part in public affairs, 

 and in 1817 he was called to the Council of State in the capacity of 

 Maitre des Requetes. In the same 3'ear he succeeded Berlin de 

 Vaux as Secretary General of the Department of Police, of which 

 M. de Decazes was then Minister. Soon after his nomination to 

 this office he became the subject of some bitter attacks in the 

 Chambers, but was well defended by his chief, whom he accompanied 

 also as Secretary General on his removal to the Department of the 

 Interior. On the fall of M. de Decazes, he resigned both his offices, 

 and never afterwards discharged any function connected with public 

 affairs. He succeeded Bosc as Professor of Culture at the Museum 

 d'Histoire Naturelle in 1829 ; and in the same year he was elected 

 a Foreign Member of the Linnean Society. In 1837 he became a 

 Foreign Member of tlie Royal Society. His death took place at 

 NeuUly ^i\ the 12th of September 1854, ut the age of 78. Few 



