AUGUSTIN-PY RAMUS DE CANDOLLE. 293 



Republic, the prospects were not encouraging. A career 

 must be sought elsewhere. De Candolle determined to study 

 medicine, at the same time prosecuting his botanical studies, 

 so as to have a double chance, by falling back upon the for- 

 mer in case the latter should fail to support him. 



In this view, he returned to Paris in the spring of 1798, 

 just in time to see his patron Dolomieu set out for Egypt, as 

 one of the savans of that famous expedition, and to decline a 

 pressing invitation to accompany him. Taking a lodging in 

 the Rue Copeau, to be near the Jardin des Plantes, he at- 

 tended the hospitals and medical lectures, which he disliked, 

 but recompensed himself at the Garden of Plants with the 

 courses of Lacepede, Lamarck, Cuvier, and Hauy, omitting 

 the botanical lectures as not to his mind, but sedulously ex- 

 amining the plants of the Garden. He renewed his acquaint- 

 ance with Lamarck, at whose request he wrote a few articles 

 (under the letter P) for the " Dictionaire Encyclopedique." 

 Lamarck himself by this time had quite abandoned botany. 



It was to Desfontaines that De Candolle was indebted for 

 an immediate opportunity of beginning his botanical career. 

 It came about thus : LTIeritier, who appears to have been 

 wealthy, had engaged Redoutc, the celebrated flower-painter, 

 to prepare drawings of all the fleshy plants in cultivation, it 

 being impossible to preserve them well in the herbarium. 

 The artist undertaking to publish these drawings, applied to 

 Desfontaines for a botanist to furnish the descriptive letter- 

 press. The kind Desfontaines recommended De Candolle, 

 and moreover offered to direct him in the work. He freely 

 opened to the young botanist his herbarium and library, and 

 allowed him to study by his side ; indeed Desfontaines was 

 his botanical master and fatherly friend. The botanical 

 library of LTIeritier, then much the largest at Paris, was 

 naturally at his service, until the death by assassination, soon 

 afterwards, of its singular owner. De Candolle, thus connect- 

 ing his name and studies with the work of the unrivaled 

 flower-painter, acquired thereby, as he remarks, more reputa- 

 tion than he deserved, and more instruction than he expected. 



In the course of this same summer, of 1798, an invitation 



