OUSTAVE THUEET. 5 



the degree of Liceneie. In the meanwhile he made occasional journeys 

 on the Continent and in England, but he never made any long stay 

 in the latter country, although he had studied the language so as to 

 be able to speak it with fluency. After obtaining his degree Thuret 

 passed much of his time at his father's residence, Chateau Keutilly, 

 near Lagny. It soon became evident that, although he had studied 

 law as a profession, he had no real fondness for it, but, instead, showed 

 a decided preference for music. His passion for music was the means 

 of his forming an acquaintance with M. A. de Villers, who, besides 

 being a musician, was something of a botanist, and had accompanied 

 Adrien de Jussieu on his excursions. From him Thuret took his 

 first lesson in determining plants, and, as doubtful species were re- 

 ferred by M. Villers to Decaisne, Thuret himself was led to seek out 

 the Parisian botanist. Accordingly, in the winter of 1839, he went to 

 Paris and received instruction in botany from Decaisne, and the friend- 

 ship then began lasted unbroken until the time of his death. 



At that time Decaisne was occupied with his " Essais sur uno 

 classification des Algues etdes Polypiers Calcifferes," and he naturally 

 led Thuret to the study of Alga). The question then attracting the 

 attention of botanists was the motile states of the lower plants, or, as 

 it was often stated, the change of plants into animals, and for the 

 study of tliis subject Algae were admirably adapted. The preference 

 of Thuret for plants in motion, for living plants rather than dead and 

 pressed specimens, was early manifested, and in 1840 his first pub- 

 lished work, " JSote sur I'anthere du Chara, et les animalcules qu'elle 

 renferme," appeared in the " Annales des Sciences." In the same 

 year he went to Constantinople as an attache of the French Embassy, 

 and, still retaining his fondness for plants, made extensive collections 

 of Phanerogams in the neighbourhood of that city. 



In 1844 Decaisne and Thuret were occupied in the preparation of 

 a paper entitled '' Recherches sur les antheridies et les spores." Ac- 

 cording to Thuret, Decaisne was the first who taught that marine Algae 

 should be studied in sea-water, for, although it now seems self-evi- 

 dent, before that time botanists had examined marine Alga3 after they 

 had been standing in fresh water, and what were recorded as pheno- 

 mena of plant-life were often nothing but the destructive eftects of 

 the fresh water. In order to secure new material for the preparation 

 of their work, Thuret and Descaisne went to the sea-shore at Arro- 

 manches. From this time Thuret devoted himself almost exclusively 

 to the study of Algae. The Academy had in 1847 ofi"ered a prize for 

 the best essay on zoospores and antherozoids, and he spent the 

 greater part of his time at the sea-shore in collecting material for the 

 elaboration of this subject. He frequently visited JSTormandy and 

 Erittany, and found Cherbourg better adapted for study than any 

 other locality. He was often accompanied by Iliocreux, with whose 

 ex(^uisite drawings all botanists are familiar, and it was at Cherbourg 

 that he enjoyed the society of Bornet and Lejolis. The Algae of the coast 

 of the North of France were studied by these botanists more thoroughly 

 than those of any other coast have ever been. In midwinter as well 

 as summer collections were made, and the life-history of the different 

 species was cleared up as it never could have been in the laboratories 

 of Paris. At length, however, the climate of Cherbourg and the 



