176 RESTORED TO FREEDOM. 



trial was already about to commence, and he would 

 infallibly have suffered death, because the mem- 

 bers of the Revolutionary Committee were ignorant 

 of the meaning of a botanical word, when, provi- 

 dentially, the 9th Thermidor arrived precisely at 

 this critical time ; Lebon himself was arrested, and 

 the naturalist had an opportunity of explaining to 

 his judges that his " chers Rhus" were not soldiers 

 armed against liberty, but plants, the juice of which, 

 as he conceived, would prove highly beneficial as a 

 medical remedy. The worthy man was conse- 

 quently restored to freedom and sent back to the 

 hospital at Valenciennes, where he continued to 

 discharge his duties and cultivate his Rhus as long 

 as he lived. Dufresnoy, for the rest, was an en- 

 thusiast in his notions as to his favourite plants 

 and herbs, and it appears some of his supposed dis- 

 coveries turned out to be fallacies. In point of 

 fact, he was no sooner dead than his brother, who 

 practised medicine at Valenciennes, plucked up 

 from his garden the unfortunate Rhus which had so 

 nearly proved fatal to their cultivator.* 



* It may interest some readers to be told that Rhus in botany is 

 the name given to a shrubby, arborescent genus, known in our 

 gardens as the sumach. There are numerous species, some of 

 which are poisonous. The Rhus toxicodendron and radicans were 

 at one time recommended in paralytic affections ; " but the 

 cases in which these virulent plants were employed are few and 

 indecisive." 



