200 PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY. 



Mirbel read a memoir upon the Structure of the Stem of 

 Dracaena Australis, of which we shall speak hereafter ; 

 and in the ' Comptes Rendus ' for 1845, we find not less 

 than seven papers against Mirbel's memoir. Many years 

 ago even, Gaudichaud was so engrossed with his own 

 theory, that he would scarcely listen to objections made 

 orally to him, or which referred to investigations which 

 he was going subsequently to publish. His style is brief, 

 almost aphoristic, and positive, nevertheless it is not free 

 from repetition ; but he says, by way of exculpation, 

 " I must continue to repeat until my system is generally 

 received." Prom his obstinacy it may be expected that 

 he will not yield. 



Gaudichaud has also evinced this pertinacity in his life. 

 He was an apothecary, accompanied, as pharmaceutical 

 botanist, a voyage of discovery under the command of 

 Freycinet, and, in September 1817, went on board the 

 corvette Urania, which was shipwrecked on the 14th of 

 February, 1820, at the Maluines. It sailed from Port 

 Jackson southwards, next struck upon some ice-islands, 

 then rounded Cape Horn, and cast anchor in the Bay of 

 Good Success, at Terra del Fuego. A violent gale of 

 wind compelled them to cut their cable and stand out to 

 sea. Some days afterwards, during the most beautiful 

 weather, the ship was driven upon some concealed rocks 

 near the Maluines, and twelve hours afterwards upon the 

 sand in the bay or creek called by the French the Bay 

 of Solitude, where it still remains. It was four o'clock 

 in the afternoon when it went upon the rocks, and four 

 o'clock in the morning when it was wrecked on the sand- 

 bank and sunk. The interval between these two events 

 was a dreadful night of anxiety and danger. Gaudichaud 

 was fortunately saved, but the whole of his collections 

 were submerged, and could not be removed until they 

 had been from thirty-six to forty hours under water. He 

 was obliged to wash every packet, in fact every sheet, in 

 fresh water, and to dry them ; and thus during the four 

 months which he passed there, he was enabled to save 



