242 Annual Report of the Council. 



projected an extensive work which aimed at describing the 

 vegetation of the world, but it was on too vast a scale to 

 ensure its completion within the life-time of its author ; 

 after two volumes had been issued, one in 18 17 and the 

 other in 1821, the ' Systema naturale regni vegetabilis' was 

 not continued further. But it was the forerunner of the 

 work which will be the best monument of the three genera- 

 tions of de Caiidolles, father, son, and son's son, viz., the 

 ' Prodromus systematis naturalis vegetabilis.' The father 

 had published seven volumes of the ' Prodromus ' prior to 

 his death in September, 1841, and the son's name first 

 appears on the title page of Volume VIIL, which he dedi- 

 cated to his father's memory and published in 1844. Eight 

 other volumes successively appeared, the 17th volume 

 bringing the first series to a close, i6th October, 1873. 

 These seventeen volumes are concerned with the description 

 and geographical distribution of dicotyledonous plants, 

 each part issued in systematic order ; but Alphonse de 

 Candolle, in conjunction with one of his two sons, viz., 

 Casimir, projected their ' Suites au Prodromus ' with 

 main reference to monocotyledons, though not excluding 

 dicotyledons ; the first volume was published in June, 

 1878, and the seventh in July, 1891, but, unlike the 'Pro- 

 dromus ' proper, its separate volumes do not occur in 

 systematic sequence, and its international character is 

 exemplified by the languages in which it is being written. 

 Though circumstances were conspiring to make him a 

 lawyer, inclination and parental wishes conspired to make 

 him a botanist, and one who was to become one of the 

 great systematists of the age. In his 17th year he came 

 under the sway of the writings of von Humboldt, and this 

 savant's conception of animated nature started him upon a 

 line of investigation which he never afterwards abandoned. 

 But for family affairs he would have found himself in the 

 New World, traversing the regions which Humboldt had 



