496 Canadian Record of Science. 
His very decided taste for communal life, and his rare 
aptitude for science, caused him for a long time to wish to 
be admitted into that institution. His desires were at last 
fulfilled: in 1858 he entered the Seminary as an auxiliary 
priest, and was immediately charged with the teaching of 
Botany. There he occupied himself with the organization 
of a museum, but the difficulties he met with, and the 
numerous cares of such an undertaking, caused him, at the 
outset, to wish to visit Hurope, in order the better to pre- 
pare himself for the teaching of his favorite science. He 
departed for Hurope in 1861. The preparation he made 
for that purpose, during the two preceding years, rendered 
his visit most advantageous and productive of good results. 
After his return, M. Brunet was appointed ordinary pro- 
fessor in the Faculty of Arts, a title which he kept until 
his death; although sickness obliged him to give up his 
work in 1870 and leave the Seminary in 1871. He then 
retired to the privacy of his family, where he enjoyed the 
society and devoted care of a beloved mother and sister. 
Madame Brunet died before her son, but Madame Giroux 
never ceased to surround her brother with the most atten- 
tive care until the last. 
During his career as professor in the Faculty of Arts, 
M. Brunet rendered important services to Laval University, 
which that institution cannot forget. He must, in fact, be 
regarded as the founder of the Museum of Botany. The 
Canadian plants which the herbarium now contains, were 
gathered, for the most part, by himself, and are the fruit of 
twelve years of earnest work. All were studied and clagsi- 
fied by himself. He profited py his voyage to Kurope, to 
give all possible authenticity to his determinations, and in 
carefully comparing those plants which presented difficulties 
of determination with original specimens in the herbarium 
of Michaux at Paris, and of Sir W. Hooker at Kew. After 
his return from Europe, the new or doubtful plants were 
submitted to examination by the most distinguished 
American botanists, such as Dr. Asa Gray, Dr. Engelmann, 
and others. 
