142 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. JPART We 
sidered the native country of a tree to be that in which it is most numerous, 
and where it acquires the greatest height and thickness. Thus he fixed on 
Kentucky as the native country of the tulip tree, because it there forms vast 
forests, has a trunk commonly 7 ft. or 8 ft. in diameter, and grows 120 ft. 
high, thriving in a moist clayey soil, but not in one that is frequently inundated, 
In higher or lower ground, or in a different soil, these trees become smaller 
and more rare. It was with a view to trace in this manner the botanical 
‘topography of North America, that Michaux visited the Floridas, and went 
as far as Hudson’s Bay. He left Charleston in April, 1792; arrived at 
Quebec in June of the same year; and reached Tadoussac, lat. 52°, in October, 
160 leagues from any human habitation. He afterwards planned a journey to 
Mexico, for the benefit of the United States; but, after very many journeys, he 
returned to Paris by Amsterdam, where he arrived on the 3d of December 
1796, after ten years’ absence. He found his friends well, but was grieved be- 
yond measure to learn that the beautiful plantations of Rambouillet, to which 
he had sent 60,000 young trees, had been destroyed during the revolution, 
and that but a very small number of the trees was remaining. Seeing that 
tranquillity was restored, he instantly thought of repairing the loss. After 
unsuccessfully endeavouring to get sent again to America, he was sent to New 
Holland. He stopped at the Isle of France, and was very desirous of going 
to Madagascar; in which island he was attacked by the fever, and he died 
there in November (an ix.), 1803; aged 57 years. 
Michaux not only sent many new trees and shrubs into France, but he sent 
great quantities of the seeds of the more useful species; such as Juglans 
Piccan, used for making furniture, and which produces the nut oil; Tax- 
odium distichum (the deciduous cypress), suitable for planting in very moist 
soil; Nyssa caroliniana, useful for the naves of wheels; Quércus tinctoria, for 
tanning and dying; and Q. virens, which, he says, grows rapidly on the sandy 
beach, exposed to the stormy winds of the ocean, where scarcely any other 
tree can exist, and the wood of which is excellent for ship-building ; to these 
may be added the caryas of Pennsylvania, the tulip trees, and the American 
ashes, maples, &c., which, in many parts of France, are preferable to the indi- 
genous trees. The administration of the Museum, aware of the services ren- 
dered to natural history by Michaux, ordered his bust to be placed on the 
facade of the green-houses, along with those of Commerson, Dombey, and 
other travellers who had enriched their collection. 
Michaux was too fully occupied in travelling to have much leisure to write; 
nevertheless, he is the author of Histoire des Chénes de ? Amérique Septen- 
tfrionale, published in 1804; a North American Flora, and a Memoir on the 
Date Palm. The particulars of his life, at great length, and proportionately 
interesting, will be found in the Annales du Muséum, tom. iil. p. 191.; from 
which this notice of his life has been abridged. 
__F, A. Michaux, the author of Histoire des Arbres de ? Amérique, after his 
father’s death, was sent to Charleston, by the French government, to bring 
over the trees collected in his father’s nurseries, and supplies of seeds. During 
his stay in America, M. Vilmorin informs us that he sent to the Administra- 
tion Forestiére larger quantities of acorns and other seeds of foreign trees, than 
had ever before been sent over from that country. He took that opportunity 
of visiting Kentucky, the Tenessee, and of penetrating nearly a thousand miles 
beyond the Alleghany Mountains. On his return to Europe, he published his: 
great work on the trees of North America, and otler memoirs on relative 
subjects; particularly one Sur Ja Naturalisation des Arbres Forestiéres de 
P Amérique, &c. He now resides in the neighbourhood of Paris, and appears 
to be as enthusiastically devoted to the study of trees and shrubs as his late 
father. We are much indebted to him for various useful communications 
having reference to the Arboretum Britannicum. 
Georges Marie Louis Du Mont, Baron de Courset, author of the Bolaniste 
Cultivateur, was the Du Hamel of his time; and, after the revolution, his 
example and exertions contributed, even more than the influence of the Em- 
