12 TRANSACTIONS LIVEEPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The gardens of Montpellier created a great sensation 

 among the botanists of the time, all of whom speak of it 

 in terms of the highest admiration. Despite lack of funds 

 Belleval added rapidly to the contents of his garden, 

 devoting special attention to the collection of local plants. 

 The siege of Montpellier in .1622 inflicted great damage 

 on the garden, but the courageous founder did not lose 

 heart. No sooner had he seen the last of the troops than 

 he set to work again and in his labours was successful in 

 interesting the great Richelieu. He had scarcely com- 

 pleted the renovations necessary when he died in 1632. 

 It will be unnecessary for me to describe in detail the 

 gradual progress of the garden during the century following 

 the death of Belleval. The arrangement of the plants 

 had been twice changed, once to conform to the system 

 of Tournefort, and again to bring it into conformity with 

 the artificial system of Linnaeus. The beginning of the 

 19th Century saw the garden under the direction of 

 .the famous A. P. de Candolle, and his election to the 

 directorate was followed by an entire rearrangement on 

 the principles of the natural system of classification now 

 so well known and universally followed. De Candolle 

 added an arboretum and greenhouses and in many other 

 ways extended the scientific usefulness of the gardens. 

 His reign at Montpellier lasted only 6 years, for in 1816 he 

 was appointed to the chair of Botany in Geneva, where 

 he spent the remainder of his life. 



A word finally as to the present condition of the garden. 

 It includes about 45,000 sq. metres divided into three 

 regions ; first, to the south, a triangular region devoted to 

 the uses of the School of Medicine, a median oblong (the 

 mount of Belleval's time), and a northern area irregular in 

 outline added to the garden as an arboretum in De 

 .Candolles time. Between the systematic garden and the 



