MONSIEUR EMILE BOUDIER. 



MONSIEUR EMILE BOUDIER. 



It seems to me that the successful completion of the magnificent 

 plates "Icones Mycologicae," by E. Boudier, is a propitious time for 

 the publication of a photograph of the author. 



Monsieur Boudier needs no introduction to European readers. 

 For many years he has stood at the head, the acknowledged master of 

 French mycology. He was born on the 6th of January, 1828, and is 

 therefore now in his eighty-fourth year. His early life was devoted to 

 trade as a pharmacist, but he wisely retired about twenty-five years 

 ago, with a modest competency, devoting the remaining years of his 

 life to his favorite studies. He has acquired a most thorough knowl- 

 edge of the fungi that grow in France, and in addition is an artist of 

 unusual talent. 



There have been a number of good artists who were not good 

 mycologists, who have issued plates of fungi, and several good mycolo- 

 gists who were poor artists. Monsieur Boudier is, in my opinion, the 

 first man to combine both talents. His plates are the acme of excel- 

 lence, both as to general appearance of the plants and the microscopic 

 structure. Every little detail is brought out with absolute accuracy, 

 and this has been at an expenditure of a world of patience and labor. 

 I am told that Monsieur Boudier will often spend two or three days 

 in making a single drawing. The 'Tcones Mycologicae," which has 

 just been brought to a successful finish, comprises six hundred plates 

 of French fungi, every one of them perfection. It is largely devoted 

 to the Discomycetes, which were always favorites of Monsieur Boudier. 



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