Riche, Claude Antoine Gaspar (1762-1797). Born at 

 Chamelet en Beaujolais, 20th August, 1762, educated at 

 Lyons and Montpellier but did not finish his studies through 

 ill-health. He died 5th September 1797 at Mont d'or, where 

 he had gone to take the waters. He had not put his papers 

 in order, and left an unpublished work "Chimie des vege- 

 taux." He was a botanical collector, but did not write on 

 botany. He was more interested in entomology, and was 

 a correspondent of Fabricius (2) Tome 39 (1824). He 

 was " Naturaliste " on the " Esperance," and helped with 

 the botanical collections. 



Allan Cunningham gives an excellent account of Riche 

 under t. 3251, Bot. Mag., from which the following par- 

 ticulars are abstracted. 



He begins with an extract from Robert Browns MSS. 

 in regard to the variability of Leueopogon Richei, R. Br. 

 He then points out that the name has reference to a tale 

 of distress and privation to which M. Riche was subjected 

 in December, 1792. D'Entrecasteaux' ships anchored 

 amongst the islands named after one of them Recherche 

 Archipelago. The discoveries made by Nuyts in 1627 on 

 the South Coast had terminated at that Archipelago, and 

 it does not appear that either the Dutch, or Vancouver a 

 century and a half later, effected a landing, so that our 

 earliest knowledge of the vegetation of this portion of 

 "Nuyts' Land," slight as it was, was due to M. Riche and 

 his misfortune. 



We learn from Labillardiere that a boat had been sent 

 from L'Esperance (the modern Esperance) to the " main 

 shore," and M. Riche accompanied the party. Quitting 

 the beach on which he had landed, (some miles to the 

 westward of Cape le Grand, in long. 121£° E.), he lost his 

 way while botanising. 



