General Introduction 37 



indeed as the starting place for an intelligent study of the 

 subject. Brongniart had to carry on his researches in his 

 early years for the most part unaided ; it was only later 

 that he found as colleagues Renault and Grand' Eury. He 

 was, however, especially well-equipped for the study of the 

 fossils by reason of his attainments as a skilled vegetable 

 anatomist. One of his principal memoirs was on Sigillaria 

 elegans, the first member of a very important family to be 

 described. Of his larger writings the most important was 

 the Prodrome d'une Histoire des Vc'getaux fossiles, published 

 in 1828. This was intended to be only preparatory to the 

 appearance of a more comprehensive work of the same kind, 

 but the latter was never completed, in consequence of his 

 ill-health. Even in the production of the Prodrome there 

 was a gap of nine years between the twelfth and thirteenth 

 parts, and only three parts appeared after its resumption. 



Brongniart's work, great as was its influence at the time, 

 was rather that of the systematizer than of the discoverer, 

 though he added considerably to the sum of knowledge by 

 observation and research. He was more remarkable, how- 

 ever, as introducing order and clearness into the study 

 of materials which had been already collected. He was 

 eminent for accuracy and judgment, as well as for the 

 clearness and neatness of his scientific writings. 



Another botanist of world-wide fame was lost to France 

 in 1893 when Alphonse de Candolle passed away. In the 

 earlier part of the century no names were more conspicuous 

 in the study of taxonomic problems than those of the de 

 Candolles, father and son. Nor were they without great 

 reputations in all the other departments of botany which 

 occupied the student and the investigator. It would be 

 idle to attempt to recount here all the services which the 

 younger of the two rendered to botanical science, a few 

 of the most prominent only can be mentioned. His botanical 

 career commenced at the age of eighteen, and at twenty-four 



