LEO LESQUEREUX. 



1806-1889. 



AMERICAN science owes an incalculable debt to the Geneva 

 Revolutionary Council of 1848, that suppressed the Academy 

 of Neuchatel and sent to our shores Agassiz, Guyot, and Les- 

 quereux. In the heart of Switzerland's mountain grandeur this 

 illustrious trio first saw the light and drank of that love of 

 Nature which, deepening with the years, peculiarly linked their 

 lives. Agassiz had been in America two years, when he was 

 joined by Guyot and Lesquereux, whose friendship had been 

 formed while they were collaborators in the quaint Swiss 

 town. 



Leo Lesquereux was born at Fleurier, canton of Neuchatel, 

 Switzerland, November 18, 1806. His ancestors were French 

 Huguenots. His father was a manufacturer of watch springs, 

 and wished his only son to follow the same trade, as was the 

 custom of the country. The future botanist's health being 

 delicate, however, his mother desired him to study for the 

 ministry. But the grandeur of his mountain home had already 

 sunk deep into the impressible soul of the youth, and circum- 

 stances sealed his preference for another pursuit. He has de- 

 scribed himself as a boy fond of rocks and flowers and eager 

 for books "a kind of natural, as they call people of that kind 

 in the South." In order to prepare for the university he was 

 sent to an academy in Neuchatel, and at the age of nineteen 

 had completed his preparations. Among his fellow-pupils at 

 this school were Arnold Guyot and August, a younger brother 

 of Louis Agassiz. To Guyot he became especially attached. 

 Leo's father was in only moderate circumstances, and unable 

 to defray his son's expenses at a university ; he had paid only 

 for the youth's board at Neuchatel, young Leo having met his 

 tuition fees by teaching. Accordingly, the young man took a 



