52 t i'ii(M KinjiNos or tiik 



in his native city, and in ISo-'i passed fi-oiii the G\ninasiuin there 

 to Paris, where he devoted his attention especially to the pliysical 

 sciences, becoming i3acheh)r of Science in 1^53 and Licentiate in 

 1856,. During the period of study :it Paris young de Candolle 

 spent some part of the year 1854 mider the roof of our hite distin- 

 guished Fellow, the Rev. M. J. Berkeley. On his return to Geneva 

 Casiiiiir de Candolle at once devoted himself to botanical work as 

 the assistant and colleague of his distinguisht-d father. On the 

 death of Alphonse de Candolle in 189;i, the Foreign Member 

 whose loss \\ H now deplore was chosen by us to fill his father's 

 place in our list, and as the successor of that eminent student 

 was destined lo carry on the traditions of tuo generations in that 

 botanical shrine in the Coiir iSt. Pierre, so well known to serious 

 systematic workers of every school. How worthy of the great 

 trust which tlie accident of birtli imposed upon him Casiiiiir de 

 Candolle was to prove is a nuittcr of common knowledge to all 

 those of every country who have had occasion to invoke his aid in 

 correspoudence with i-eference to Candollean types, and to those 

 who may have found it necessary to visit the l)e Candolle Her- 

 barium and examine its treasures themselves. If his owti esjiecial 

 studies have nob covered so wide a field as that in which his 

 grandfather's and his father's labours lay, this has been due to the 

 circumstance that the facts of science ai-e so multiplied in all 

 parts of that field as to render it impossible for a single worker 

 now to deal with more than a limited portion of what a century 

 ago might easily bereviHwed by one student of nature. That the 

 narrouingof his field of study was not due to any lack of devotion 

 those who had the honour of the acquaintance of Casimir de Can- 

 dolle know. That the quality of the work he did bears the most 

 critical comparison with that done by his eminent predecessors is 

 equally well known to those who have had occasion to tV)llow his 

 studies in the families Piperaceae and Meliacese, with regard to 

 which )»e had long been recognized as the greatest living authority. 

 It is not necessary here to recapitulate the contributions of 

 Casimir de Candolle to natural knowledge; they are written in 

 tlie chronicles of the science he served so faithfully ; they are 

 open to the study of all who may consult them, and will live with 

 us and with those who follow us. It is also impossible to convey 

 to our successors, or to those of our contemporaries who had not 

 the invaluable privilege of knowing him in person, what the death 

 of Casimir de Candolle means to those who had the honoin- of his 

 ac(juaintance. jNlodest as he was erudite, in him were combined 

 a courtesy as unfailing as it was unatfected and a w illingne?s to 

 assist those in need of information as great as the charm of manner 

 with which he imparted the knowledge he was so able and so 

 willing to convey. Not botany alone, but all that is best in human 

 experience is the poorer for the death of Casimir de Candolle, 

 which took place after a prolonged and painful illness at Vallon^ 

 near Geneva, on 3rd October, 1918. [D. Prain.] 



