212 Biographical Memoir of M. Claude Louis Richard. 



which had led him to adopt the unfortunate resolutions. Four- 

 croy, when he established the School of Medicine in 1795, had 

 named him professor of botany. He there found an opportu- 

 nity of planting a beautiful garden ; and, entering upon this 

 new duty with much zeal, he formed several excellent pupils. 

 But his habits were fixed, both with respect to his manner of 

 living, and the difficulty of arranging his labours for publica- 

 tion. It was with difficulty that, towards the end of his life, 

 he was prevailed on to give a few specimens of his researches in 

 scientific journals, and perhaps even this he regretted. Botany 

 is commonly represented as a science, as gentle and peaceable as 

 the objects which it studies. Unfortunately it does not change 

 the character of botanists, or impress its own upon their discus- 

 sions. M. Richard, like most secluded persons Avho have long 

 cherished certain opinions without contradiction, was keenly 

 hurt by the objections offered to some of those which he had 

 published, and answered in a tone which well proved in how 

 great a degree he had become a stranger to the world and its 

 forms. The replies elicited by these answers were perhaps too 

 acrimonious also. His quiet was disturbed by these altercations, 

 and his bad health rendered still worse. On the whole, how- 

 ever, these dissertations astonished by the depth and sagacity of 

 the views, and by the extensive observations which they shewed. 

 One of them, entitled. Analyse du Fruit*, and which did not 

 even come from his pen, but was written at his lectures by one 

 of his pupils, is so full and so concise as to be equivalent to a 

 great work ; and the learned botanist whom we have already 

 mentioned, regrets that Gasrtner could not have seen it before 

 composing his own, as from it, he says, he would have gained 

 much. This little production was immediately translated into 

 several languages. The observations which it contains on the 

 embryos of the plants, which the author names endorhizes, or 

 which are commonly called Monocotyledones, were in particular 

 as new as important, and he enlarged on them in a Memoir on 

 the Germination of the Gramine^^, accompanied with figures of 

 unexampled accuracy. He has left another in manuscript on 



• Demonstrations Botaniques, &c. Botanical Demonstrations, or Ana- 

 lysis of tlie Fruit, considered in general, byM. Louis Claude Richard. Pub- 

 lished by H. A. Duval. 1 vol. 12mo. Paris, 1608. 



