372 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



NOTE III. 



The history of science presents few names more illus- 

 trious than that of Jussieu. For more than a century and 

 a half the members of this family have distinguished them- 

 selves in the first rank of botanists, and one of them has 

 exercised over botany and over the natural sciences gene- 

 rally an amount of influence which can never be effaced. 



Antoine de Jussieu, who was born at Lyons in 1686, 

 and died at Paris in 1758, was Professor at the Jardin 

 du Roi. 



He left various works, amongst others an Appendix to 

 Tournefort. 



Bernard de Jussieu, his younger brother, was born at 

 Lyons in 1699, and died at Paris in 1777. He accom- 

 panied his brother in a journey through Portugal to 

 collect plants, and he then acquired so ardent a love for 

 botany that he devoted himself exclusively to that 

 science. Happy in the humble situation of sub-demon- 

 strator, which permitted him to manage the botanical 

 garden at his pleasure, and to collect plants in company 

 with the pupils to whom he communicated his own taste 

 for study, and to whom he made known all his discoveries, 

 Bernard de Jussieu never sought to obtain renown by 

 the publication of his observations. His answer to those 

 who informed him that his discoveries were claimed by 

 others was invariably, " Qu'importe, pourvu que la chose 

 soit connue ? " nor could his friends ever induce him to 

 do more than publish a few isolated memoirs. Never- 

 theless he was always deeply interested in general ques- 

 tions and amongst others in that problem of a natural 

 method which the great Linnaeus had declared im- 

 possible of solution. Having been named in 1759 super- 

 intendent of the gardens at the Petit-Trianon, Bernard 



