50 HIST Gil Y OF THE MUSEUM. 



fixed in the pursuit of natural history, in which ho 

 has since made so eminent a figure both as a pro- 

 fessor and an author. 



The connections of the King's Garden with 

 learned societies , with travellers, and with the 

 naturalists of foreign countries, requiring a con- 

 tinual correspondence, for which the intendant 

 and keeper of the cabinet had not time , and 

 which they could not confide to ordinary se- 

 cretaries, Buff on obtained the creation of a new 

 place of assistant keeper of the cabinet, to which 

 the correspondence was attached. To this place 

 he appointed his friend Faujas de Saint-Fond, 

 who, by his extraordinary activity and varied 

 knowledge, was of all men the best calculated 

 to fill it. M. Faujas did not limit himself to epis- 

 tolary intercourse, but made several journeys, 

 and came back laden with treasures for the Mu- 

 seum, collected by himself, or obtained by solici- 

 tations in the name of Buff on. 



Mademoiselle Basse p or te, during thirty years, 

 had added to the collection of drawings on vel- 

 lum such objects as were pointed out to her by 

 Bernard de Jussieu: her zeal was unabated, but 

 her talent, which had never equalled that of Au- 

 brie t, was enfeebled by age. Buff on, desirous of 

 attaching to the garden the ablest artist in this 

 line , obtained the reversion of her place for 



