24 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. [1839, 
des Plantes, I had also to consult, for a few things, 
the set taken by the actual writer of the “ Flora,” 
L. C. Richard. This I found at the house of his son 
Achille Richard, botanical professor in the Medical 
School, living in the Medical Botanie Garden, then 
occupying a piece of the Luxembourg grounds. The 
other French botanists I recall were Dr. Montagne, 
the eryptogamist, a pleasant man, Gaudichaud, whom 
I saw little of, Auguste St. Hilaire, who I think spent 
only the winter in Paris. I had an introduction to 
Benjamin Delessert, who lived in fine style in a hotel 
in the Rue Montmartre. Lasegue, the librarian, acted 
as curator to the herbarium (Guillemin had died not 
long before), which I found occasion to consult only 
once. I should not forget Jacques Gay, with his 
large herbarium very rich in European plants. I never 
dreamed then that so many of them would find their 
way into our own herbarium. He lived close to the 
Luxembourg Palace, then the palace of the House of 
Peers. Gay was the secretary of the Marquis de Se- 
monville, who was a high official there, and so lived near 
by. He held a weekly reception for botanists, ete., 
and was a good soul. It was at the herbarium of the 
Jardin des Plantes that I first made the acquaintance 
of a botanist of about my own age, Edmond Boissier 
of Geneva, who was studying some of the plants of 
his collections in Granada and other parts of Spain, 
soon after brought out in his work on the “ Flora of 
Granada,” ete. 
I left Paris in early spring, by malle-poste to Lyons ; 
passed a day with Seringe ; steamer to Avignon, dili- 
gence to Nimes, and thence to Montpellier, where I 
passed two or three days. Delile and Dunal were the 
professors ; saw Bentham’s mother and sister, then 
