XV BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 
joy, in their own fields, the refreshing shades of the finest and most useful trees of our native forests, 
of those, especially, which are employed in civil and naval constructions, or in cabinet work. As Ame- 
ricans, we are ourselves under peculiar obligations to him for an accurate knowledge of our forest trees 
and for the good advices which his experience has enabled him to give us on points of national economy 
connected with arboriculture. 
Francois André Michaux was born on the 16th of August, 1770, at Satory, a royal domain situated 
in the vicinity of Versailles, which, for several generations, had been intrusted by the Crown to the 
administration and management of his ancestors. He was the only son of André Michaux, who, with 
Catesby, Clayton, Bartram, Kalm and Walter, was one of the picneers of botanical explorations in the 
North American regions. His mother, Cecile Claye, was a daughter of a rich farmer of Beauce. 
She died, eleven months after her marriage, leaving behind her a son, the subject of this notice. 
Of the early life of Francois André Michaux, I have not been able to collect much information. 
It is probable that he was brought up on the farm of Satory, in the practical school of his father and 
of one of his uncles, upon whom devolved, after the departure of the former, the sole management of 
this extensive royal estate. It may be inferred also from his writings and instructive conversation, 
that his collegiate education had not been neglected. 
His father, whose history is inseparably linked with that of his son, had devoted all his life to the 
progress of agriculture and the sciences; his main ambition had been to effect something that might 
redound to the advantage of his native country, and, with this view, he had early turned his attention 
to agriculture, the advancement of which, he had soon perceived, could not be more securely attained, 
than by enriching its domain with such products of foreign climes as were unknown to his own country, 
and susceptible of acclimation. In order to accomplish his object, he determined to visit new regions, 
possessing climates similar to that of France, and to bring back thence such of their productions as 
might prove of advantage to his native land. 
To effect that purpose, he prepared himself by a proper course of studies, and by devoting his par- 
ticular attention to the science of Botany, under the great Bernard de Jussieu. He first visited Eng- 
land; he next made several explorations in the mountains of Auvergne, and in the Pyrennees; then in 
Spain, and embarked afterwards for Persia, in the capacity of Secretary to the French Consul at Is- 
pahan; but, in reality, for the sole purpose of exploring that country, then almost unknown to scienti- 
fic men. From 1782 to 1785, he surveyed the whole of the Persian provinces, between the river Ti- 
eris and the Huphrates, and returned to France, with an extensive collection of specimens, and a large 
quantity of seeds of every kind. 
During the absence of the elder Michaux, the French government had been agitating the important 
question of introducing into the forests of France, such exotic trees as would be calculated to increase 
the national resources, with respect to naval constructions. The information which had been received 
from the United States in this regard, had been exceedingly encouraging, and Michaux, who had just 
returned from Asia, was chosen for that particular errand, with instructions to procure, for the royal 
nurseries, all the young trees, shrubs and seeds he could possibly send. In consequence, he made all 
proper dispositions, and embarked at Lorient, on the 25th of August, 1785, taking with him his son, 
then only fifteen years of age, and a journeyman gardener of the name of Paul Saulnier, of whom I 
shall speak hereafter. They landed at New York on the first of October following. 
At this remote period of time, I am altogether without record as to the movements of young Michaux, 
immediately after his landing on our shores. The only source where I expected, naturally, to obtain 
information, was the manuscript journal in which his father was in the habit of registering the daily 
incidents of his eventful life, and which had been deposited by his son in the library of the American 
Philosophical Society. Unfortunately, this journal has become incomplete, through the absence of 
