CHAPTER. Xi 
LAMARCK AS A BOTANIST 
DURING the century preceding the time of La- 
marck, botany had not flourished in France with the 
vigor shown in other countries. Lamarck himself 
frankly stated in his address to the Committee of 
Public Instruction of the National Convention that 
the study of plants had been for a century neglected 
by Frenchmen, and that the great progress which it 
had made during this time was almost entirely due to 
foreigners. 
“JT am free to say that since the distinguished 
Tournefort the French have remained to some ex- 
tent inactive in this direction; they have produced 
almost nothing, unless we except some fragmentary 
mediocre or unimportant works. On the other hand, 
Linné in Sweden, Dilwillen in England, Haller in 
Switzerland, Jacquin in Austria, etc., have immortal- 
ized themselves by their own works, vastly extending 
the limit of our knowledge in this interesting part of 
natural history.” 
What led young Lamarck to take up botanical 
studies, his botanical rambles about Paris, and his 
longer journeys in different parts of France and 
in other countries, his six years of unremitting labor 
on his Flore Francaise, and the immediate fame it 
brought him, culminating in his election as a mem- 
