XXVi BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 
them, which I found wholly planted with Maryland Oaks, and covering an extensive plot of ground. 
Though the young trees, then devoid of their foliage, had suffered much, the second year, from the de- 
predations of a herd of swine that had trespassed upon these grounds, they still appeared vigorous and 
promising, and are, I suspect, the very same trees that are now (as I see by the Paris papers) adorn- 
ing the Quai des Tuilleries, and some of the new boulevards of the French metropolis, under the de- 
nomination of American Oaks thirty-six years old. 
In acknowledgment of the service I had thus rendered him, Mr. Michaux presented me with a copy 
of the French edition of his magnificent work, beautifully bound in three volumes, and containing a 
double set of plates, the plain and the coloured. 
Mr. Michaux’s person was tall, strongly built; but not corpulent. His complexion was fair; he was 
slightly pock-marked, and possessed prominent features. His light blue eyes had a peculiar expression 
which startled me at first. His countenance was stern and cold on first approach; but it smoothed 
off and brightened gradually, as he spoke and became more familiar; his utterance, in the beginning 
somewhat slow and cautious, became rapid and impressive, and his conversation gay and even humo- 
rous. All his manners were quite simple and unaffected, frank and lively—they were altogether those 
of an open-hearted country gentleman, in whose presence, young as I was at the time, I could feel nei- 
ther embarrassment nor shyness. 
I do not think that, since this interview with Michaux, his position and pursuits underwent much 
change. To the very last day of his life, he was fortunate enough to retain his health and remark- 
able activity of body andmind. The main point of his arboricultural experiments, was to turn to ad- 
vantage those lands, called heaths, which, in France alone do not cover less than two millions of acres, and 
were considered as utterly sterile. Through ‘forty years of experiments, performed by him on the 
large demesnes belonging to the Central Society of Agriculture, and to Mr. Delamarre, he has ascer- 
tained that such lands could be improved and rendered productive by the cultivation of certain resi- 
nous trees, which succeed well in such soils. Of all the American and European pines with which he 
has experimented, Michaux gives the preference to the Russian Pine, Pinus sylvestris, which, in his 
letter to the President of the American Philosophical Society, above mentioned, he recommends warm- 
ly to the particular attention of the agriculturists of the Northern and Middle States of the Union. 
With the view to remedy the scarcity of wood, under which this country is beginning to suffer, 
through the rapid and improvident destruction of the native forests, Michaux recommends also to the 
American people the cultivation of bushy or spreading trees, producing copses, or Tallis, to which he 
has applied a special mode of culture, more rational and more favourable to the development of vege- 
tation, and, consequently, more profitable to the landholders. 
We are informed by the same letter that Michaux was then preparing for publication a work in 
which he intended, succinctly, to develop his ideas on those interesting subjects, and to lay open the 
results of his observations and practical experience, for the particular benefit of the farmers and land- 
holders of the United States. 
Michaux’s lust days were thus passed tranquilly, dividing his time between his favourite occupations 
of arboriculture, and the society of a few friends, among whom the most intimate were President Se- 
guier, Messrs. Macarel, D’André and Vilmorin. Louis Philippe himself, who had known him in this 
country, never ceased to show him the greatest esteem and affection. He was always happy to see 
some transatlantic acquaintance. All the Americans, who have seen him in Paris, or at his country 
residence of Vauréal, can testify to the urbanity of his manners, and to the cordiality with which he 
received his visitors. In conversation with Americans, nothing afforded him more pleasure than the 
subject of this country. He listened with amazement to the wonderful accounts of its progress, of the 
rapid increase of its population, of its wealth and resources, of its success in war and in diplomacy. The 
