BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR 
THE LATE FRANCOIS ANDRE MICHAUX. 
BY ELIAS DURAND. 
Read Dec. 5th, 1856. 
Frangois André Michaux, the subject of this memoir, belonged essentially to that class of scientific 
explorers who, by their devotion to science and their energy in promoting the welfare of mankind, may, 
justly, be viewed in the light of benefactors of their race. 
When we consider the noble spirit with which such men enter upon their hazardous enterprises; 
when we witness the fortitude with which they encounter the fatigues and inconveniences of their dis- 
tant voyages in regions as yet unexplored, we cannot withhold from them the expression of our admi- 
ration. It is not a spirit of egotism that moves them onwards; it is not for their personal gratification, 
nor with the view of enriching themselves by their discoveries, that they desert their family-hearth and 
separate themselves from the father-land. Their object is disinterested and of the noblest character. 
They labour for the advancement of science, and, above all, for the benefit and enjoyments of their 
_ fellow-beings. 
To what toils, to what privations and dangers, must they not necessarily expose themselves in order 
to attain the object they have in view? Behold them wending their way through inextricable forests ; 
through pestilential marshes; over grounds untrodden by the human foot—strugeling and panting un- 
der the rays of a torrid sun, or shivering under heavy showers of rain—now clambering over steep 
rocks, and next descending into deep precipices, constantly exposed to dangers of every description. 
To men of this class we already owe many of those succulent vegetables which cover our tables; 
those delicious fruits which enrich our gardens and orchards; those fine trees, shrubs and flowering 
plants which grow by the side of our native trees, ornament our parterres and pleasure grounds, or are 
cultivated in our green-houses. The Peach, the Apricot, the Cherry, the Almond, as well as the 
greater part of our most valuable garden vegetables, were obtained from Asia, the cradle of the human 
race; the Walnut came from the Black Sea; the Pear, the Apple, the Chestnut, from the forests of 
Hurope; the Orange from India; the sugar-cane from China; the Maize and Potato from South Ame- 
rica, &c. And, ere long, through the perseverant exertions of Frangois Michaux, Huropeans will en- 
VOR. XI.—C 
