226 Notice of Prof. De Candolle. 



3. Economical Botany, which was to comprehend the study 

 of all the other modes of making plants subservient to the wants 

 of man ; a part of the subject which he looked upon as still to 

 be written.* 



Such are some of the works he contemplated, which he had 

 long familiarly considered, and for which his whole course of 

 study had been a preparation. In what words can we sufficiently 

 lament the loss to science and to humanity of a man who had 

 laid out so broad a plan of useful labor, and had given such ex- 

 amples of the manner in which he was hastening to complete it ! 

 It is to be hoped that the manuscript notes of the extensive 

 courses of lectures to which he refers, may supply his son, or 

 some other equally competent person, with the means of filling 

 up the outline he has sketched. 



Eight years of unremitted and obstinate labor had been con- 

 secrated to the study of the immense family of the CompositaB.f 

 This intense devotion, the natural efl'ect of his native and char- 

 acteristic ardor, proved too much for his health, already aflected 

 by severe study, and undermined, it is said, by a constitutional 

 malady. What constitution could have held up under labors so 

 immense ? We know not the particulars of his end ; the burden 

 was too great, and the body of the wise and strong man failed. 



It is impossible to estimate the extent and magnitude of the in- 

 fluence of the writings and character of such a man as De Can- 

 dolle. The science to which he devoted his life must always 

 feel it ; it cannot go back. His vast plan once laid down, noble 

 spirits every where and in all future time will strive to realize it. 

 His great idea of the science once spread before the world, no 

 one can hereafter aspire to the worthy name of botanist, who is a 

 mere collector and labeller of specimens, or a mere dissector of 

 plants. He must aim to fill his mind with the extensive and va- 

 rious and exact knowledge of other sciences, and of all parts of 

 his own, which this great man has shown to be essential to an 

 accomplished botanist. 



* From an article on the geographical distribution of the plants used as food, in 

 the " Bibliolheque Universelle de Geneve," for April and May, 1836, we conceive 

 hopes that M. Aiphonse De Candolle is engaged in a work of this kind. 



\ See Memoire Neuvieme, in the volume of Memoires. If the Compositse had 

 been given with the same fulness and minuteness of description and reference 

 which characterize the Systema, they would have occupied twelve or fifteen vol- 

 umes. 



