AUGUSTIN-PYRAMUS DE CANDOLLE. 
Der CANDOLLE was born at Geneva on the fourth day of 
February, 1778 ; he commenced his distinguished career as a 
botanist in Paris in the later days of the French republic ; 
he continued it at Montpellier until 1816, when he returned 
to his native Geneva, where he died in September, 1841, — 
on the fifth day of that month, according to the opening para- 
graph of his son’s preface to this volume,!— on the twenty- 
fifth according to the note by the same excellent authority at 
the close of the Memoir, p. 489. We cannot account for the 
discrepancy ; but the former is without doubt the true date. 
The twenty-one years which have elapsed since his death 
have thinned the ranks of those who knew De Candolle, either 
personally or by correspondence. The “ Théorie Elémentaire,” 
the “ Organographie,” and the “ Physiologie Végétale” have 
played their part, and have long ago passed out of general use. 
Yet, thanks to their influence, but more especially to the “ Pro- 
dromus,” the name of De Candolle is still perhaps the most 
prominent one with the cultivators of the science in general the 
world over, — is associated, not indeed with the profoundest 
depths, but with a larger amount of botany than any other 
name except that of Linneus. These are the personal mem- 
oirs of an industrious, highly useful, prosperous, and honored 
life. Begun at middle age, perhaps mainly for the writer’s 
own satisfaction, or that of his family, and continued at con- 
siderable intervals down to his last year, and evidently with 
a growing expectation of future publication, — they have ap- 
peared none too soon to secure the most interested but rapidly 
narrowing circle of readers. The outer circle, however, is as 
1 Memoires et Souvenirs de Augustin-Pyramus De Candolle. crit par 
lui-méme. Geneva and Paris, 1862. (American Journal of Science and 
Arts, 2 ser., xxxv.1. 1863.) 
