DE CANDOLLE. I05 



most reasonable plan of describing plants, and he 

 noticed the organs, one after the other, in the proper 

 manner. Teaching himself the rudiments of the 

 study of plants, and giving much time also to 

 literature, young De CandoUe remained much at 

 home, for Geneva was in a horrible state of 

 political revolution. Robespierre managed to send 

 emissaries there, and most of the better class of 

 citizens were imprisoned. De Candolle's father was 

 sentenced to death, but being away from the town 

 the sentence had no effect. This state of things 

 lasted for some time, until the good sense of the 

 majority annulled the sentence and restored order. 

 Many Genevese emigrated to America, and when 

 De Candolle returned to his studies he found the 

 town sad, and nearly all his old friends exiled or 

 gone in disgust. He had no amusements and there- 

 fore his studies were prosecuted with vigour, and 

 he began a course of natural philosophy. In 1796 

 he left his studies and spent the summer with his 

 father, reading good botanical works on the natural 

 philosophy of trees, the uses of leaves ; and, what 

 was of more importance, he wandered far and wide 

 over the Jura Mountains, collecting plants to 

 describe and study. He got Linnaeus's European 

 Botany, and soon began to learn many plants by 

 their proper names. But he used Linnaeus's book 

 as a simple dictionary, for he saw that although 

 the names of plants could be easily found out by 

 it, there were plants grouped together in it that 

 had no close resemblance in their most important 



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