236 Alphonse DeCandolle. 



Aet. XXXY. — Alphonse DeCandolle. 



Alphonse Louis Pieeee Pyeamus DeCandolle, the son of 

 Augustin Pyramus DeCandolle, was born on the 28th of October, 

 1806, and died in his eighty-seventh year, on the 4th of last 

 April (1893). His father, born in 1778, published his first botan- 

 ical work in 1799; thus the scientific activity of these two re- 

 markable botanists covers nearly a full century. 



Casimir, the son of Alphonse, has contributed not only to sys- 

 tematic botany but also to the philosophy of the subject, in 

 striking treatises on leaf arrangement and on the morphology of 

 the leaf itself. There are therefore three generations of botanists, 

 by the last of whom the century is, we may hope, to be more 

 than rounded out. 



Augustin, of the first generation, was widely known for his 

 concise and clear exposition of the fundamental principles of 

 vegetable morphology, as well as for his comprehensive endeavor 

 to describe all known flowering plants. It is interesting to note 

 that in the same field of exposition, Alphonse, of the r second 

 generation, began his philosophical work. The Theorie Elemen- 

 taire of the father is fitly followed by the Traite Elementaire of 

 the son. The latter treatise, commonly known as the Introduc- 

 tion, was published in 1835, in two volumes covering the essen- 

 tial principles of pure and applied botany. An unauthorized 

 edition, in one volume, was published in Brussels, in 1837, and 

 the work has been translated into the principal continental lan- 

 guages. Those who look carefully into this compact treatise, 

 knowing what its author subsequently accomplished, will see clear 

 indications of symmetrical development, together with a marked 

 tendency to investigate speculative aspects of the different 

 branches of the subject. One phase of the subject possessed for 

 him such strong attraction that he published, one year later, than 

 the Introduction, a small work on the Distribution of Food- 

 plants. Thus while aiding his father in the elaboration of the 

 natural orders for the Prodromus, he was engaged in attacking 

 philosophical questions of the greatest importance. We must 

 say once for all that his interest in Systematic Botany, as evinced 

 in the countless pages either written or edited by himself, did not 

 flag even up to the very last ; but with all this extraordinary 

 activity in Systematic Botany, he was busy with every conceiv- 

 able collateral speculation, always so bold and yet conservative, 

 as to keep the confidence even of those who could not follow 

 him. This speculative tendency is shown most strikingly in the 

 great Botanical Geography, published by him in 1855. This 

 vast work consists of well arranged facts brought together with 

 untiring assiduity from all possible quarters. As the first volume 

 draws to its close, it is seen that the clue which the author 



