Memoirs of DeCandolle. 7 
By DeCandolle’s account he was by about ten years the young- 
est member of this réuwnion. Yet he has the name of Biot an 
Duméril on his list, both of whom survived him for twenty years: 
and Biot was really not quite four years his senior, and Duméril 
only five. 
As a member of this select circle of intimate friends and zeal- 
ous savanis, all then pressing on to the very highest distinction, 
we may well believe that the ambitious young botanist enjoyed, 
and improved to the full, such golden opportunities, that he 
learned something of every branch of natural history, and also 
—what was no less useful at Paris—‘4 connaitre les hommes et 
les mobiles cachés de bien des choses.” 
-DeCandolle sketches the following portraits of three of his 
associates, Duméril, Cuvier, and Lacroix. And first of 
“The excellent Duméril. He was the ideal of the frank character 
which we attribute to the Picards. He wasa sincere and devoted friend, 
always ready to second and render any service to me and mine, 
cloud ever threw a shadow over,our alliance, which became closer yet 
when, at a later period, the friendly connexion of my wife with the wid- 
owed Madame Say determined the latter to marry Duméril. He was 
ment which he so well knew how to give to the young. The heart in 
“Cuvier, who was from the beginning the intimate friend of Dumeéril, 
Was entirely different: and it would be difficult to find two people who 
acquired the reputation which results from great talent united to a skillful 
ambition, At the time when the office of secretary was annual he fore- 
Saw it would become perpetual, and arranged in such a manner as to 
one secretaryship almost continually, either himself or by others; so 
