TOURNEFORT. 



were fpeiit in the univerfity of Montpellier, where he firft 

 entered in 16-9 ; but he is faid to have taken his doftor's 

 degree at Orange. At Montpellier he enjoyed the intimacy 

 of the excellent Magn'ol, of whom we have given an ac- 

 coimt in his proper place, and to whom the long-eftabli(hed 

 botanical fame of that univerfity is chiefly owing. Yet 

 this able man narrowly efcaped being hunted from his feat ; 

 as his no lefs eminent fucceifor, profeflbr Decandolle, has 

 lately, in 18 16, been, becaufe he was a Proteftant ; nor 

 could the appointment of his king proteft the latter from 

 that king's worft enemies. Tournefort was in no danger 

 of this kind. He was neverthelefs a liberal Cathohc, whofe 

 fubfequent animadverfions on the depraved fuperflitions that 

 occurred in his travels, prove him to have been by no means 

 the fiave of any church or priefthood. 



The merits of Tournefort, as a botanift, foon became 

 confpicuous at Paris, and, aided by a fortunate introduc- 

 tion, procured him the efpecial favour of profeflbr Fagon, 

 then chief phyfician to the queen, (fee Fagonia,) who re- 

 figned in his favour the fuperintendance of the royal garden. 

 In this fchool he was foon attended by a numerous throng 

 of ftudents, eager to follow him in his herborizations round 

 Paris, and to profit by his praftical remarks. We have 

 already, in our account of William Sherard, mentioned 

 that iUuftrious botanift as among his aJIiduous pupils. The 

 fubjeft of our memoir now became defirous of further ex- 

 amining the produaions of other countries than his own, in 

 their native fituations. For this purpofe he travelled in 

 1688 to Spain and Portugal, afterwards into Holland and 

 England ; enriching by thefe means his own collefticm of 

 dried plants, as well as the hving colleftions of the Parifian 

 garden, and procuring the acquaintance and correfpondence 

 of all the moil eminent cultivators of the fcience in which 

 he excelled. Hence the great herbarium of Sherard became 

 fupplied w ith all Toumefort's acquifitions, not only at that 

 time, but after his fubfequent voyage to the Eaft, the friiits 

 of wliich were tranfmitted to England with more particular 

 care and exaftnefs, than perhaps to any other country, as 

 appears by what are fl;ill preferved at Oxford. The ftudies 

 and labours of Tournefort were faciUtated and encouraged 

 by a royal penfion, which could certainly not come under 

 the opprobrious denomination of a iinecure. In 1692 he 

 became a member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 

 1694 pubhihed in French his Elements de Bctanique, making 



three oclavo volumes, dedicated to Louis XIV This was 



but a prelude to his immortal work, the Inflkuiioncs Rei 

 Herbdr'ui, of which the firft edition, in three quarto volumes, 

 with 476 plates, appeared in 1700. The fecond, which, 

 ■with a reference to the " Elements," is called the third, was 

 pubhflied by Anthony de Juffieu, at Lyons, in 1719, with 

 the Corollarium, compofed of the author's Oriental dif- 

 coveries. In 1698, when he was admitted a member of 

 the Medical Faculty at Paris, he pubhfhed a httle duo- 

 decimo volume, Hijloire des Plant es qui naiffent aux Environs 

 di Paris, afterwards tranflated by profeflbr Martyn into 

 Engh(h. The reputed virtues of the plants are fubjoined 

 10 their fynonyms and defcriptions. The arrangement is 

 alphabetical, the ftyle defultory, nor is this one of the beft 

 books of its kind. 



We know not at what period Tournefort received the 

 order of St. Michael, but that he was decorated therewith 

 appears by his portrait, pubhflied by Dr. Thornton, from 

 an original picture ; and the circumftance is alluded to by 

 Haller, Bihl. Bo:, v. 2, 3. 



At the earneft recommendation of his friend Fagon, 

 Tournefort was difpatched, under royal patronage, on a 

 toyage to the Levant, the avowed objeA of which was to 



inveftigate the plants of ancient writers, as well as to mak 

 new difcoveries. He was accompanied by a German phy 

 fician, named Andrew Gundelfcheimer, (fee Glndelia, 

 and by Claude Aubriet, one of the moft esquifite botanic:- 

 painters that the world ever faw. Thefe travellers le;: 

 Paris on the 9th of March, 1700, and embarking at Mar- 

 feilles the 23d of April, anchored nine days afterwards in 

 Crete. The inveftigation of the Archipelago, Greece, the 

 ftiores of the Euxine, the countries of Bithynia, Cappa- 

 docia, Iberia, Armenia, Georgia, Galatia, Lydia, &c. 

 occupied two years, and our adventurers returned in fafety 

 to Marfeilles, on the 3d of June, 1702. Toumefort's ac- 

 count of this expedition, written in French, and publiftied 

 foon after his deceafe, is one of the moft agreeable, inteUi- 

 gent, and valuable books of travels extant. De Theis 

 juftly refents the cenfure of the Abbate Seft.ini, that it is 

 written with the furia francefe, or rage for every thing 

 French. To the mode of its compofition indeed fomething 

 may be objected. The work is addreiTed, in the form of 

 letters, to the comte de Pontchartrain, fecretary of ftate, 

 Sec. &c.; and as the etiquette of the French court required 

 that fo iUuftrious a perfonage fliould of courfe be endued 

 with all human erudition arid knowledge, the writer is 

 obliged to treat him accordingly. We are therefore told 

 nothing without the impertinence of " vous fgavez Mon- 

 feigneur ;" except perhaps the harmlefs defcription of a new 

 plant, in writing which the author's love of fcience made hirri 

 flip, for a moment, the collar of patronage. The reader ir.- 

 deed foon forgets every thing but the dehghtful company of 

 the narrator, who takes us along with him to every Ipot ; 

 details with equal inteUigence the manners, drefles, and in- 

 formation of the people he vifits ; or carries us into the pro- 

 foundeft refearches of ancient hiftory and geography ; tracing 

 the fate of empires, countries, and cities, with the fame 

 grace and faciUty with which he makes us enamoured with 

 a new plant, or expofes the impofitions or the ignorance of 

 empirics of the foul or body. This work is illuftrated with 

 a ver)- large number of plates, of which the botanical one 3 

 are peculiarly excellent. We have a good Enghlh edition, 

 and Haller mentions one in Dutch. The curious grotto 

 of Antiparos afforded the author an opportunity of detaiUng 

 his favourite theory of the vegetation of ftones, which is 

 now refuted by more accurate chemical enquiries. (See 

 Stones. ) His travels were to have extended into Africa, but 

 the plague raging in Egypt, he returned home direftly from 

 Smyrna. On arriving at Paris, it was his deCgn to have 

 turned to advantage the conneftions and reputation he had 

 acquired, by devoting himfelf to the praftice of phyfic. 

 But whatever profpecl he might formerly have had of fuc- 

 cefs in this hne, was defeated by his long abfence ; nor did 

 the duties of his botanical appointments leave him fufficient 

 leifure to court or to purfue his more lucrative profeflion. 

 His time however was inceflantly occupied ; and the pre- 

 paration of his Voyage du Levant for pubhcation, which, 

 conCdering the books neceflary to be confulted, was no hght 

 or fpeedy taik, led him too often to encroach on the night, 

 after the fuperabundant labours of the day. His health be- 

 came impaired, but this could not relax his ardour. His 

 fate however was precipitated by the accident of a carriage 

 in the ftreet, which cruftied his breaft, and even threatened 

 him with inftant death, from which he was refcued by tlie 

 exertions of a friend near at hand. He languiflied for a 

 few months only after this event, and died December 28, 

 1708, in the fifty-third year of his age. We find no men- 

 tion of his place of burial, nor of any monument erefted to 

 his memor)-. He was never married. He left his collec- 

 tion of plants to the king, who bellowed a penfion of a 



thoufand 



