I06 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



parts. At this time his interest in his study was 

 intensified by a terrible instance which he wit- 

 nessed of the hidden powers of simple-looking 

 plants. He saw three little children die who had 

 eaten belladonna berries. 



When eighteen years of age, De Candolle went 

 to Paris and lived in the same house as Dolomieu, 

 a very distinguished mineralogist, a wise and 

 moderate man whose simplicity charmed the young 

 man. This wise friend did not press his special 

 study on De Candolle, but advised him to follow 

 his fondness for botany, giving him, however, some 

 little insight into the nature of crystals and their 

 laws of form. De Candolle then learned that there 

 was a philosophy in stones, and he always stated in 

 after life that this instruction made him think 

 about the philosophy which linked plants together 

 in the scheme of creation. He had an instructive 

 conversation with a well-known botanist, about the 

 structure of the stems of palms and grapes — which 

 differ so much from those of the oak, plane, willow — 

 and of ordinary shrubs ; and this distinction of two 

 great groups of plants gave him an insight into 

 some of the grand distinctions between plants, and 

 which enabled hundreds of species or genera to be 

 grouped and separated. Unfortunately, at the 

 time of his arrival at Paris, the botanical courses at 

 the college were not being given, so he began to 

 attend the lectures on chemistry, physics, and 

 mineralogy. He often went to hear Cuvier, the 

 great comparative anatomist, whose great ability 



