BARON CUVIER. 101 



and delighting in a knowledge of foreign plants, he heard 

 that Dombey had returned from Peru and Chili with an 

 immense collectioUj for the publication of which he had 

 long sought the necessary funds. L'Heritier obtained the 

 herbarium from Dombey, allowed him an annual pension, 

 and from that moment no bounds were set to his zeal ; 

 painters and engravers were employed, and the Avork was 

 far advanced, when he received intelligence, that the Span- 

 iards who had accompanied Dombey demanded of the 

 French government that his botany should not be pubhsh- 

 ed before theirs, and, consequently, that the herbarium 

 should be restored to Dombey. The order for this restora- 

 tion was expected the next day, when L'Heritier. consulting 

 only his friend, M. Broussonet, sent for twenty or thirty 

 packers, and the night was passed in making cases. L'He- 

 ritier, his wife, and MM. Broussonet and Redoute, packed 

 the herbarium : early the next morning the former posted 

 off to Calais with his treasure, nor rested till he -was safe 

 on the English soil. He passed fifteen months there in 

 the most perfect retirement, and was dehghted with the 

 kindness he received. The library and collections of Sir 

 Joseph Banks, the herbarium of Linnaeus, then in the 

 possession of Sir J. E. Smith, besides the acquisitions of 

 other botanists, were all open to him, and he there finished 

 his manuscript. The plates were most of them completed 

 when he returned to France ; but political circumstances, 

 and the duties he was called on to perform as a citizen, 

 prevented the appearance of this great work. The same 

 zeal and activity, united to a most conscientious fulfilment 

 of the labours allotted to him, distinguished him as a 

 magistrate ; but neither pablic nor private virtues could 

 save him from the hand of the assassin. Returning home 

 late one evening from the Institute, he received several 

 stabs from a sword, and was found dead, the next morning, 

 a few paces from his ow^n door. 



M. Gilbert was chiefly celebrated as an agriculturist ; and 

 he it was who was sent to Spain by the government of 

 France, to procure those beautiful breeds of sheep from that 

 country which had caused such improvements in the Eng- 

 lish wool. This excellent man's character may be compre- 

 hended, when it is known that a friend of his being suspected, 



