10 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 
The name was at first variously spelled de La- 
marque, de la Marck, or de Lamarck. He himself 
signed his name, when acting as secretary of the As- 
sembly of Professors-administrative of the Museum 
of Natural History during the years of the First Re- 
public, as plain Lamarck. 
The inquiry arises how, being the eleventh child, 
he acquired the title of chevalier, which would natur- 
ally have become extinct with the death of the oldest 
son. The Abbé Dulac suggests that the ten older of 
the children had died, or that by some family arrange- 
ment he was allowed to add the domanial name to 
the patronymic one. Certainly he never tarnished 
the family name, which, had it not been for him, would 
have remained in obscurity. 
As to his father’s tastes and disposition, what in- 
fluence his mother had in shaping his character, his 
home environment, as the youngest of eleven chil- 
dren, the nature of his education in infancy and boy- 
Pontacg, or Lamarque pres Béarn, That the Lamargue of the 
botanist of the royal cabinet distinguished himself from all the Za- 
marques of Béarn or of Bigorre, which it bears (gw’?? gise) to this day in 
the Hautes-Pyrénées, Canton d’Ossun, we have many proofs: Aast at 
some distance, Bourcat and Couet all near l’Abbaye Laique, etc. The 
village so determined is called in turn Marca, La Marque, La- 
marque ; names predestined to several destinations ; judge then to 
the mercy of a botanist, Lamarck, La Marck, Delamarque, De La- 
marck, who shall determine their number? As to the last, I only ex- 
plain it by a fantasy of the man who would de-Bigorrize himself in 
order to Germanize himself in the hope, apparently, that at the first 
utterance of the name people would believe that he was from the 
outre Rhin rather than from the borders of Gave or of Adour. Con- 
sequently a hundred times more learned and a hundred times more 
worthy of a professorship in the Museum, where Monet would seem 
(entrevait) much less than Lamarque.” 
It may be added that Béarn was an ancient province of southern 
France nearly corresponding to the present Department of Basses- 
Pyrénées. Its capital was Pau. 
