EDMOND BOISSIER.? 
Epmonp Borsster died on the 25th of September, at his 
country residence in Canton Vaud, Switzerland, at the age of 
seventy-five years and three months. Having known him per- 
sonally almost from the beginning of his botanical career, 
which has been so honorable and distinguished, it is a melan- 
choly satisfaction as well as a duty, to pay this passing tribute 
to his memory. 
Boissier came from one of those worthy families which were 
lost to France and gained to Geneva by the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes, —a family that has proved its talents and 
high character in more than one of its members. Madame 
the Countess de Gasparin is a sister next to him in age, and 
the two had their education very much in common. He was 
born at Geneva, May 25, 1810, brought up and educated 
there, except that the summers were passed at his father’s 
place at Valeyres, which he in time inherited, and where his 
life was closed. From his youth he was fond of natural his- 
tory and of travel. It was not in his disposition, nor of the 
Genevese spirit of that day, to lead an aimless life ; so, when 
he came to choose what may be called his profession, it was 
natural that, at Geneva, in the days of the elder De Can- 
dolle, he took to botany. He showed his great good sense by 
his early judicious choice of a field and by his unbroken devo- 
tion to it. To the Mediterranean region, to southern Spain, 
and the Orient most of his work relates. After a year or two 
of careful preparation he went to Spain, in 1837, explored 
especially Granada and the eastern Pyrenees, and between 
1839 and 1845 brought out his “ Voyage Botanique dans le 
midi de l’Espagne,” in two large quarto volumes, the first of 
narrative and plates, one hundred and eighty in number, the 
1 American Journal of Science and Arts, xxxi. 20. (1886.) 
