20 A. Gray — Botanical Necrology of 1885. 



Of a rather large family of children, four survive, two of them 

 sons, and a goodly number of grandchildren. 



Edmond Boissier died on the 25th of September, at his 

 country residence in Canton Vaud, Switzerland, at the age of 

 seventy-five years and three months. Having known him per- 

 sonally almost from the beginning of his botanical career, which 

 has been so honorable and distinguished, it is a melancholy 

 satisfaction, as well as duty, to pay this passing tribute to his 

 memory. 



Boissier came from one of those worthy families which were 

 lost to France and gained to Geneva by the revocation of the 

 Edict of Nantes, — a family that has proved its talents and high 

 character in more than one of its members. Madame the Coun- 

 tess de Gasparin is a sister, next to him in age, and the two had 

 their education very much in common. He was born at Ge- 

 neva, May 25. 1810, brought up and educated there, except that 

 the summers were passed at his father's place at Valeyres, 

 which he in time inherited, and where his life was closed. From 

 his youth he was fond of natural history and of travel. It was 

 not in his disposition, nor of the Genevese spirit of that day, to 

 lead an aimless life; so, when he came to choose what may be 

 called his< profession, it was natural that, at Geneva, in the 

 days of the elder De Candolle, he took to botany. He showed 

 his great good sense by his early judicious choice of a field and 

 by his unbroken devotion to it. To the Mediterranean region, 

 to Southern Spain, and the Orient most of his work relates. 

 After a year or two of careful preparation he went to Spain, in 

 1837, explored especially Granada and the eastern Pyrenees, 

 and between 1839 and 1845 brought out his Voyage Bolanique 

 dans le midi de VEspagne, in two large quarto volumes, the first 

 of narrative and plates, 180 in number, the second of descrip- 

 tive matter relating to the Granadan flora. Among the species 

 he brought to light was the Abies Pinsapo, the beautiful fir-tree 

 now so well known in cultivation. His narrative, besides its 

 botanical interest, is charming reading. 



In 1842, after his marriage to his cousin, of the de la Eive 

 family, he traveled with his wife in Greece, Anatolia, Syria, and 

 Egypt. It was to his dear companion that he dedicated two of 

 their joint discoveries, Omphalodes Lucilice and Chionodoxa 

 Lucilioz. In 1849 hie experienced the great sorrow of his life 

 in her death from typhoid fever, during a second journey 

 in the south of Spain. Between 1842 and 1854 he pub- 

 lished the first series of his Diagnoses Plantarum Orientalium 

 Novarum, filling two volumes, and in 1855 the second series of 

 almost equal extent; in 1848 he completed his monograph of 

 the Plumbaginacece ; in 1862 he promptly finished his con- 

 scientious elaboration of the great genus Euphorbia for DeCan- 



