Ohituary Notices. xxiii 
long a period as half a century, the earlier parts should become 
obsolete before the work was completed, and no doubt in the 
original scheme a much more rapid progress was expected than 
actually proved possible. Be this as it may, it was at last found 
by Alphonse de Candolle that it was undesirable to attempt to 
complete the Prodromus, and in 1873 the work was finally closed, 
the Monocotyledons not having been even touched. 
This unsatisfactory position has, however, been met by initiating 
a separate publication, under the title of the Monograpliioe Phanero- 
gamarum, of which the eighth volume is now in the press, the 
editorship having been shared by Alphonse and his son, Casimir 
de Candolle. The object of this work has been partly to revise 
the orders treated in the earlier volumes of the Prodromus^ and 
secondly to take up the Monocotyledons, which were omitted from 
the Prodromus. A circular letter was issued in 1875 announcing 
the scheme and method of the new enterprise. Though well 
responded to, only seven volumes of the new work have yet 
appeared, including 17 families, eight of which are from the 
Monocotyledons. The treatment of the Smilacese in the first 
volume, by Alphonse de Candolle himself, showed the wideness of 
the new scheme ; for he took into account the anatomy, the 
affinities, the geographical distribution, and the fossil representa- 
tives of the family. 
Here it may not be amiss to mention the extensive collection 
brought together originally by the father, and continually growing 
under the management of the son. It is probably the largest 
private collection in existence, its rival having been the Hookerian 
Herbarium, now incorporated with the great collection at Kew. 
This, together with the drawings and library, all managed with 
the greatest perfection, was willingly placed at the disposal of 
visitors, and especially of those who were engaged as collaborators 
in the systematic undertakings of the de Candolles. 
Working upon this extensive herbarium, among divers families, 
gave de (Candolle an opportunity of extending the science beyond 
the mere recognition and description of new forms, an opportunity 
which he grasped from the first. It has already been remarked 
that in his earliest monograph of the Campanulaceae he paid 
particular attention to the geographical distribution of the species. 
