May, 1893. OBITUARS. 397 
realised that the work was too vast, and started on the Prodvomus, 
evidently, from its name, intended as an abridged form of the larger 
work. After the first few volumes, however, the Prodromus became 
itself a series of complete monographs, thus ultimately realising 
Auguste’s original ideal. The first volume appeared in 1824, and 
the name of the father alone appears on the title-page of this and the 
six that follow. In his historical account in the seventeenth and 
last volume, Alphonse says his father was almost entirely responsible 
for the matter of the first seven volumes, at which he worked unceas- 
ingly for twenty years, from 1822 till his death in 1841. From the 
third volume onwards, however, he was assisted by his son, who, 
after his father’s death, carried on the work for thirty-two years more, 
adding ten volumes. Though he received a great deal of help from 
other botanists, of whom he gives a list, with the number of pages due 
to each, he was solely responsible for the editing, and also worked up 
twenty-six of the monographs. 
Folks may wonder, he says, why, with so many helpers, the work 
took so long. But monographers find their difficulties increased with 
the number of species, specimens, characters, and synonyms. More- 
over, rarely are herbaria and books to be had at one and the same 
time without some hindrance or delay, libraries being often separated 
from the plants, or wanting in the more recent works. Here a most 
devoted botanist lacks either the books or plants, while there the 
botanist is himself wanting in zeal, method, or time for work. 
There are also authors who, having undertaken a monograph, do not 
forward it in due time, or even giveit up altogether. This last failing 
in particular caused loss of time, and necessitated frequent division of 
the volumes into sections and transposition of the Orders, one 
(Artocarpez) having, at the last moment, to be abandoned, and, finally, 
the conclusion of the work, at the end of the dicotyledons, ‘ne 
tertiam botanicorum generationem occideret!’’ In the ‘ Mono- 
graphie Phanerogamarum,” however, the number of missing Orders 
is gradually being reduced, seven volumes having been issued at the 
time of his death, while others are in active preparation. 
The Prodvomus includes 214 natural orders, 5,134 genera, and 
58,975 species; 15 per cent. of the genera and 25 per cent. of the 
species are new. Of the 13,194 pages, the de Candolles (including 
Casimir, who supplied 260) wrote 5,950 pages, various curators of 
the Candollean Herbarium 1,475, and other botanists, among whom 
are three Englishmen—Bentham, Sir J. Hooker, and A. H. Weddell 
—5,769. 
But the Prodvomus was not the sole outcome of all these years. 
Until 1850 Alphonse occupied the Chair, instituted for his father, 
at the University of his native town, but in this year resigned it, in 
consequence of the state of political affairs in Geneva. In 1835 he 
had published an ‘ Introduction to the Study of Botany,” a book of 
two volumes, and in 1844 produced a third edition of his father’s 
