VAILLANT. 



whert he removed to Evreux in Normandy, to place himfelf 

 under another furgical teacher. Here he gained the good 

 opinion of the marquis De Goville, captain of the royal 

 fufiliers ; who engaged M. Vailknt as furgeon to his com- 

 pany, with the rank of heutenant. Thus the peaceable 

 botanift, the organift of a nunnery, became a foldier ; en- 

 countered the dangers of a campaign ; came off with honour 

 and fafety ; performed the laft duties to his patron, who fell 

 in the battle of Fleurus, July i, 1690 ; and after vifiting 

 feverai towns in Flanders, returned to Evreux, which he 

 quitted next year to purfue his ftudies, with more advan- 

 tage, at Paris. 



On the theatre of the metropolis, the talents of our 

 young candidate for fcientific diftinftion and improvement 

 found every pofTible encouragement and advantage. Here, 

 although the practice of furgery feems to have been his firil 

 objeft, probably with more diredl views to a maintenance ; 

 he foon refigned every other purfuit for the firft paflion of 

 his youth, and botany henceforth engaged all the faculties 

 of his mind. He foon difcovered the fcienceto bejuft then 

 in a ftate to make the fcientific fortune of a man of enter- 

 prize and genius. Botany had, for fome time, become a 

 leading tafte among perfons of rank and opulence, by which 

 the materials for its improvement had accumulated, but the 

 advancement of the fcience itfelf had not, by any means, 

 kept pace vifith its riches. Men of the firft rank in human 

 intelleft, who had fixed everlafting landmarks in other de- 

 partments of knowledge or literature, though they had 

 done much in botany and other branches of natural hiftory, 

 had but imperfeftly accomplifhed any great fyftematic plans 

 of technical diltribution or difcrimination, without which 

 mere praftical knowledge is but an indigefted chaos. The 

 lucid order, and rapid perceptions, of Tournefort's mind, 

 with whom Vaillant was now foon familiarized, as one of the 

 moft diligent of pupils, could not but ftrike him with pecu- 

 liar force, while fupplying light of which he fo fenfibly felt 

 the neceflity. But as a lamp, however brilliant, ferves to 

 betray the furrounding darknefs.in an unlimited unexplored 

 cavern ; fo the achievements of Tournefort, like thofe of 

 his predecelTors and contemporaries, tended as yet to difplay 

 more of the arduous nature of their undertaking, than of 

 its perfeft accomplifhraent. The common herd of their 

 pupils and admirers, are like the animalcules on a blue-bottle 

 fly ; who, as a witty writer obferves, " doubtlefs think their 

 fly the greateft and the blueft objeft in the univerfe," and 

 they can only go where it pleafes to lead. But Vaillant, 

 though adoring the genius of Tournefort, and loving his 

 truly amiable focial qualities, could not but perceive the im- 

 pcrfeft execution of much of his plan, and detefted at 

 once perhaps many of thofe faulty principles, which have 

 gradually difplayed themfelves to fubfequent obfervers. 

 That he had performed an Herculean taflc, could not be de- 

 nied, but that much remained to be done, was but too evi- 

 dent to an acute obferver. The great preceptor foon 

 became aware of the talents of his pupil ; he held him up 

 as an example to his colleagues, and adopted him as a coad- 

 jutor in the elucidation of the plants about Paris. 



After refiding fome time at Neuilly, Vaillant was chofen 

 fecretary to Father de Valois, a Jefuit, confeffor to the 

 younger branches of the royal family. Here he became 

 known to M. Fagon, firft phyfician to the king (fee Fa- 

 gonia); who finding him inveftigating and arrangmg 

 moffes, was much ilruck with the fpecific definitions, writ- 

 ten in Vaillant's beautiful hand under each, as they ttill 

 remain. Fagon foon afterwards took him under his imme- 

 diate proteftion, promifed to further his wilhes of travel- 

 ling, and invited him to refide at Paris, till he could procure 



Vol. XXXVI. 



him an appointment of that kind from the king. Tins 

 objea however was foon given up. Vaillant became fecre- 

 taiy to his patron, and was taken into his houfe. Having 

 free accefs to every part of the royal gardens, he enriched 

 his own herbarium, and thofe of Fagon and Tournefort, 

 with exotic, as well as native, fpecimens, which he prepared 

 with flail and dexterity. He likewife added daily to the 

 coUedion of living plants, and became, under M. Fagon, 

 the diredor of the Jardin du Roi. At length, in 1708, 

 this faithful and'difmterefted friend refigned, in favour of 

 Vaillant, his own appointment, of profeflbr and fubdemon- 

 ftrator of plants in that garden, which Tournefort had re- 

 peatedly foHcited from him in vain. To this great benefit, 

 which Vaillant was anxious, by all poflible exertions, to 

 deferve, was added the conftruftion of new and ample hot- 

 houfes, at the wifh of the new profeifor, and the formation 

 of a fplendid cabinet of Materia Medica. His leftures on 

 botany, and efpecially a " difcourfe on the ftrufture of 

 flowers," fince published, were received with great applaufe. 

 He was admitted, without folicitation, into the Academic des 

 Sciences ; it is even faid that he was defirous of declining 

 this honour, which his friends had great difficulty in per- 

 fuadiiig him to accept. A piece of felf-denial, or exceffive 

 modefty, the reafons for which are not very apparent. 



In the intervals of his other occupations, Vaillant vifited, 

 at different times, various parts of France, for the fake of 

 botanical enquiries ; but it does not appear that, except his 

 martial expedition into Flanders, he ever extended his 

 travels beyond the hmits of his native country. His foreign 

 correfpondence, neverthelefs, was very extenfive, and by 

 this means he greatly augmented the riches of the royal 

 garden. 



Notwithftanding Vaillant's original admiration of Tour- 

 nefort, and his perfonal intimacy with that great and amiable 

 man, of whom we have given an account in its proper place ; 

 he very foon, as we have already hinted, became diffatisfied 

 with fome of the fundamental principles of his preceptor. 

 He adopted and clearly explained the feses of plants, and 

 confequently afferted the importance of the ftamens and pif- 

 tils, in a phyfiological as well as fyftematic point of view. 

 This was the fubjeft of his difcourfe above-mentioned, de- 

 livered June loth, 1717, before his pupils at the Jardin du 

 Roi. On the 17th of December, 1721, he read a profefled 

 criticifm on the method of Tournefort, before the Academy 

 of Sciences, printed in the Memoirs of that learned fociety 

 for 1723. We regret to find, in both thefe performances, 

 much difrefpeftful mention of his illuftrious predeceffor ; 

 which has been but too feverely retahated upon himfelf, by 

 the negleft which his own juft pretenfions have received 

 from his countrymen. To have been more in the right than 

 Tournefort, was of itfelf a fufEcient offence ; and to have 

 afferted his opinion with afpcrity and indecorum, ferved only 

 to authorize part of the hoftility which he incurred. What- 

 ever progrefs Vaillant had made towards the foundation of 

 a new fyltem of claffification, he did not hve to lay it, in 

 any regular form, before the public. His aftive hfe was 

 devoted to the acquifition of materials, which he had no 

 opportunity of employing. His difficulties, doubtlefs, in- 

 creafed with his progrefs. What parts he did perfeft are 

 admirably done ; particularly his elaborate expofition of the 

 genera and fpecios of the fyngenefious, or compound 

 flowers, publiflied in the Memoirs of the Academy, between 

 the years 1718 and 1722. But the obfervations and en- 

 quiries of this great botanift had been extended to various 

 other claffes and families of plants, though they never 

 ripened into any complete fyftematic work. The vvriter of 

 the prefent article has long ago recorded, Tr. of Linn. Soc. 



3 Z V. I, 



