STUDENT LIFE AND BOTANICAL CAREER m 



botany under Bernard de Jussieu, for ten years gave 

 unremitting attention to this science, and especially 

 to a study of the French flora. 



Cuvier states that the Flore Franqaise appeared 

 after " six months of unremitting labor." However 

 this may be, the results of over nine preceding years 

 of study, gathered together, written, and printed 

 within the brief period of. half a year, was no hasty 

 tour de force, but a well-matured, solid work which for 

 many years remained a standard one. 



It brought him immediate fame. It appeared at a 

 fortunate epoch. The example of Rousseau and the 

 general enthusiasm he inspired had made the study 

 of flowers very popular — " une science h la mode," as 

 Cuvier says — even among many ladies and in the 

 world of fashion, so that the new work of Lamarck, 

 though published in three octavo volumes, had a 

 rapid success. 



The preface was written by Daubenton.* Buffon 

 also took much interest in the work, opposing as it 

 did the artificial system of Linne, for whom he_liad;' 

 for other reasons, no great degree of affection. He 

 obtained the privilege of having the work published 

 at the royal printing office at the expense of the 

 government, and the total proceeds of the sale of the 

 volumes were given to the author. This elaborate 



* Since 1742, the keeper and demonstrator of the Cabinet, who 

 shared with Thouin, the chief gardener, the care of the Royal Gar- 

 dens. Daubenton was at that time the leading anatomist of France, 

 and after JBuffon's death he gathered around him all the scientific men 

 who demanded the transformation of the superannuated and incom- 

 plete Jardin du Roi, and perhaps initiated the movement which resulted 

 five years later in the creation of the present Museum of Natural His- 

 tory. (Haray, 1. t., p. 12.) 



