FRIENDS AND COADJUTORS AT PARIS. 37 



In enumerating Humboldt's botanical friends in Paris, we 

 encounter the names of Decandolle^ of Desfontaines, the aged 

 tutor of Decandolle, and lastly of Antoine- Laurent Jussieu, the 

 nephew and representative of the three celebrated brothers of 

 that name. Jussieu was born in 1748, and after a long life 

 spent in the midst of an activity that falls to the lot of few 

 votaries of science, died in Paris in 1836, where he was 

 honoured with a public funeral. 



Auguste-Pyrame Decandolle was born in 1778 at Geneva, 

 where he died in 1841. He was one of the greatest botanists 

 that ever lived, an acute observer and a most industrious in- 

 vestigator, and was especially distinguished by his researches 

 on the physiology of plants, and for his skill in their systematic 

 classification. He enjoyed the intimate friendship of Hum- 

 boldt, and the correspondence at this time maintained between 

 them affords many interesting proofs of the cordiality of their 

 intercourse. Thus Humboldt writes from Paris, March 24, 

 1812: 1 . . . 'I have been charged with a thousand mes- 

 sages to you by MM. Berthollet and Laplace, as well as by 

 Gray, with whom I am living at present, on account of his cen- 

 tral position, Eue d'Enfer No. 67. Nowhere does there exist a 

 more discriminating appreciation of the extensive range of your 

 acquirements, of the amiability of your character, or the disin- 

 terestedness of your love of science, than within the circle o 

 our little society' the society of Arcueil. The following pas- 

 sage is interesting from the allusion it contains to the state 

 of Humboldt's health, and to the affection of the arm from 

 which he subsequently suffered : 4 My health is excellent, 

 with the exception of my arm, of which I have not the full 

 use.' He also expresses the impatience he felt to start upon the 

 projected expedition to Eussia, from which he was hindered 

 by the publication of his American works : ' I am for ever 

 working at this interminable journey, which worries me to 

 death.' In another letter 2 to Decandolle, written in 1818, he 

 again alludes with impatience to 'this journey which will 

 never be finished : ' 'I will not any longer delay presenting 

 you in my name and in that of my coadjutors, MM. Bon- 



1 De la Koquette, vol. i. p. 193. 

 3 Ibid. vol. i p. 210. 



