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Stahes of mediane at the faculty in Strasbourg, where I became a doctor in December 

 1852. Immediately after, I joined the health Services of the army; I spent the first three 

 years in Paris and in other garrisons in France. At the beginning of 1856 I was sent to 

 Algena where I stayed until the month of May 1859, time during which I followed the 

 army to Italy and was present in all the great battles at Magenta, Milignano, Solferino 



^ oon 1 retumed to Pans «n *e month of August 1859, there was the question of 

 sending an expedition to China, and I asked to be mcluded. We embarked in Brest the 

 following December. We sailed by Teneriffe, the Cape of Good Hope, by Singapore 

 Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tchefou, Tiensing and went all the way to Peking The 

 expedition fmished there, where I spent more than a year. I retumed to France in 1862 

 and was placed in the garrison of Strasbourg. I immediately asked to be included in the 

 expedition that was already in Mexico but my request was not granted until December 



CoSnLT V£/r ^ Ch,ef ° f mediCme in the ° rizaba militai y hos P^ in 



Cordoba. In 1865 I went to Mexico City and shortly thereafter to San Luis Potosi frorn 

 where I wrote you for the first time. From there I traveled to the North as chief of the 

 mobile umt. I sometimes lived in Saltillo and sometimes in Monterey and accompanied 

 several regiments to Matamoros, Mier, or Linares. When the French army began its 

 retreat I followed them down stage by stage with the ambulance until Matehuala San 

 Luis Potosi Queretaro, Mexico, Puebla, Orizaba and Veracruz. We made long pauses in 

 each one of these eitles. I retumed to France in April 1 867 



From my ycmth I was given the taste of horticulture and botany by my mother During 

 my medical studies I studied natural history mainly botany, a little more than was 

 necessary to become a doctor. My botany professors were Mr. Fee and Kirschleger At 

 this time I became acquainted with Mr. Buchinger who was the librarian of the 

 Hortcultural Society in Strasbourg where I frequently went and then became member 

 of its Society. I studied with enthusiasm the flora of Alsace, but my horticultural taste 

 pushed me towards the study of more exotic plants, specially the ones that I saw in the 

 greenhouses and in the gardens. This is the way I began studying the Cacti. It was my 

 täte that half a league from my village of birth, where I spent vacations and where I 

 frequently went, there was a rieh land owner with a magnificent greenhouse and a rieh 

 botanical hbrary. He was Mr. Saglis. He was what one might call a rieh amateur who 

 for ostentation, had a collection of rare plants. He did not know much and for him the' 

 value of a plant was only because of its rarity. He was also held in high esteem by the 

 horticuhural merchants of Paris, who would have a place for their rare plants The 

 Rhipsahs Sagharis was named after him as well as the Echinocactus Sagliaris 

 (hybrogonus). 6 

 This gentleman honored me with his protection and allowed me his library and his 

 greenhouse. I leamed very much about the multiplication of the plants that quickly 

 filled the rooms of the house and its garden. Mr. Saglis, had a beautiful collection of 

 Cacti for sale, and in which he had a lot of money. He liked them because of there 

 Singular nature. He was not interested in having a complete collection but only in 

 havmg the rare plants. It is with him that I began to know the Cacti. Because I was 

 interested in them I made myself a small collection. I bought the works of Forster 

 Pfeiffer and Salm that I needed to classify them. This collection had naturally limited 

 tETl 5 l Tu ■"7 m c co ; iection beca "*e I had no greenhouse. In the meantime and 

 thanks to the fact the Mr. Sagte threw out the left over I was able to collect some and 

 with Haage and Erfurt and Senke in Leipzig, I amassed 2 to 3 hundred plants 



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