226 Notice of Prof. De Candolle. 
3. Economical Botany, which was to comprehend the study 
of all the other modes of making plants subservient to the wants 
of man; a part of the subject which he looked upon as still to 
be written.* 
Such are some of the works he contemplated, which he had 
long familiarly considered, and for which his whole course of 
study had been a preparation. In what words can we sufficiently 
lament the Joss to science and to humanity of a man who ha 
laid out so broad a plan of useful labor, and had given such ex- 
amples of the manner in which he was hastening to complete it! 
It is to be hoped that the manuscript notes of the extensive 
courses of lectures to which he refers, may supply his son, or 
some other equally competent person, with the means of filling 
up the outline he has sketched. 
_ Eight years of unremitted and obstinate labor had been con- 
secrated to the study of the immense family of the Composite.t 
This intense devotion, the natural effect of his native and char- 
acteristic ardor, proved too much for his health, already affected 
by severe study, and undermined, it is said, by a constitutional 
malady. What constitution could have held up under labors so 
immense? We know not the particulars of his end; the burden 
was too great, and the body of the wise and strong man failed, 
It is impossible to estimate the extent and magnitude of the in- 
finence of the writings and character of such a man as De Can- 
le. The science to which he devoted his life must always 
feel it ; it cannot go back. His vast plan once laid down, noble 
spirits every where and in all future time will strive to realize it. 
His great idea of the science once spread before the world, no 
one can hereafter aspire to the worthy name of botanist, who is 2 
mere collector and labeller of specimens, or a mere dissector of 
nts. He must aim to fill his mind with the extensive and va- 
rious and exact knowledge of other sciences, and of all parts of 
his own, which this great man has shown to be essential to an 
accomplished botanist. ; 
; From an article on the geographical distribution of the plants used as food, in 
the “ Biblio ue Universelle de Geneve,” for Apri and May, 1836, we conceive 
hopes that } . Alphonse De Candolle ip-ongiged in a work of this kind, 
been given with the same fulness and minuteness of description and reference 
—_ characterize the Systema, they | would have occupied twelve or fifteen vol- 
um 
