THE JUSSIEUS AND THE NATURAL METHOD. 253 



BERNARD DE JUSSIEU. 



§ 1. — His youth. 



This first founder of the natural method, whose name is so well known, whose 

 personal history so little, was born at Lyon, 17th August. 1699. His youth 

 seems to have passed without indications denoting any special taste or aptitude, 

 much less superiority. Having pursued his early duties at the Jesuits' college 

 in Lyon, and completed that of rhetoric, his brother Antoine invited him to Paris, 

 in 1714, that he might there finish his course of philosophy. 



To be left to meditate in tranquillity was then the whole ambition of the 

 young philosopher. But Antoine having, in 1716, projected a visit to the south- 

 ern provinces of France, and thence to Spain and Portugal, took Bernard with 

 him as a compsmion. It was during this excursion, and especially during his 

 exploration of the Lyonnais and Saint Chaumont, that Antoine made his valua- 

 ble observations on natural history. "His young brother," as their nephew 

 Laurent tells us, " was then acquainted with but few plants, and had no decided 

 taste for botany ; the plants which he met with were examined, however, with so 

 much attention that he never forgot them ; and, at a greatly advanced age, still 

 perfectly recollected the places where he had gathered them." 

 '* * # * * ♦ * # 



In 1722 Antoine procured him the appointment of sub-demonstrator to the 

 chair of botany at the Jard'in Royal, and unequal as the position might appear 

 to his merit and subsequent reputation, he could never be prevailed upon to 

 relinquish it ; nor, with the exception of two short trips to England, did he again 

 quit the environs of Paris. * 



In the mean time he had become a licentiate in medicine, in 1724, and in 1726, 

 at the instance of Antoine, was enrolled as doctor in the medical faculty of Paris. 



" The functions of Bernard at the Jardin Royal," as Laurent informs us, 

 "consisted in directing the cultivation of plants, and in conducting in the country 

 the herborizations of pupils who attended the courses. He also superintended the 

 gardeners, and would relinquish to none the gathering of seeds, &:c. Nor can 

 we omit to notice his unalterable patience in the study of plants which he sedu- 

 lously watched under all the forms they assume at the different stages of their 

 growth." Tournefort had published, in 169S, a " History of the Plants in the 

 Environs of Paris," and this work being out of print, Bernard gave, in 1725, a 

 new edition, enriched with notes. The first of August, of the same year, the 

 Academy of Sciences admitted him to membership. 



I have already said that the two brothers lived together, and were unmarried. 

 In this intimate union Bernard was indefatigable in the use of means for sec- 

 onding Antoine. He foresaw and prepared everything for his lectures. When 

 the care of the sick necessitated the absence of Antoine, on Bernard devolved 

 the reception of their common friends, and however retiring his nature, he dis- 

 charged this duty in such a manner that the fraternal mansion became the centre 

 of a cheerful, as well as learned, society, where everything new in botany and 

 natural history was iinafifectedly discussed. 



§ 2. — Corrpspondence of Bcriiard dc Jussieu and Linvceus. 

 From the mutual letters of Bernard de Jussieu and Linnaiust we are enabled 

 to form an idea of the singular contrast which existed between the two, united, 



* Lament remembered having heard him relate that ou one of those occasions he brouo-ht 

 back with him from London, in his hat, a pot containing;' two plants of the cedar of Lebanon, 

 which had not, as yet, been seen iu France. One of these two cedars forms, at this 

 day, a distinguished ornament of our Jardin dcs Flantes. 



t Epistolcc Caroli a Linne ad Bcrnarduw de JussicuincditcE, et mutua Bernardi ad Linnaum : 

 curante Adriano de Jussieu. (Exactis Acad. Art. et. Scicnt. Amcric, t. v., ser. uov. Canta- 

 brigire, Nov. Ang., J854.) Most of the Leitrcs of Bernard had been published by Smith, but 

 translated into English. M. Adrien de Jussieu has given them iu latin, the language iu 

 which they were written, and interspersed them with those of Linnaeus. 



