846 
-yalifts,fuch as Morton,Collinfon, Ellis, Hud- 
fon, Birch, Baker, Dacofta,Edwards,&c. In 
the month of April, 1761, he embarked for 
Amfterdam, in his way to Tubingen, in 
which place he intended to fix himfelf for 
the prefent. He learned, on his arrival, 
that hehad been nominated a member of the 
Royal Society of London; and he was fhort- 
ly after appointed profeffor of anatomy at 
Tubingen, which laft cireumftance induced 
him to purfue his refearches on compara- 
tive anatomy. From feveral drawings 
and memoirs, found among his. papers, it 
appears, that, at this period, he had been 
chiefly occupied in the examination of the 
organs of the voice in different animals. 
The celebrity Gertner had acquired in 
England was foon {pread over the reft of 
Europe. This was lefs owing to the works 
he had publifhed, than to the knowledge 
and ability he difplayed in his intercourfe 
among Jearned men, in the different coun- 
tries he vifited. In confequence of this 
increafing reputation, he was, about this 
time, elected a member of the Imperial 
Academy of Sciences at Peterfburgh, and 
proteffor of botany and natural hiftory in 
that city. Being more attached to this 
fcience than to that ef anatomy, he depart- 
ed for Peterfburg in June 1768. Gertner 
was then in the 36th year of his age; he 
had ftudied botany under Van Royen, at 
Leyden, had attended to it during his tra- 
vels, and was acquainted with the whole 
extent of the fcience. From his recent ap- 
pointment, however, he thought it necef- 
fary to attend to it more in detail, and 
foon perceiving that all former writers on 
botany had neglected to examine fruits, 
refolved to make them the chief objeé& of 
his ftudy ; thus entering on a career which 
occupied the greateft portion of his life, 
and enabled him, as it were, to create a 
new fcience. It was then at the begin- 
ning of 1769, that he undertook that vaft 
work, which latd the foundation of his 
glory, and muft fecure to his memory the 
gratitude of every lover of botanical 
{cience. 
The feverity of a climate to which he 
had not been accuftomed having impaired 
his health, he joined Count Orlow, who 
at the requeft cf the Academy of which he 
was prefident, and by the order of the Em- 
refs, was about to depart, with fome other 
een men, to the Ukraine. He there 
collected a variety of plants, the greatelt 
number of which was unknown, and his 
defcription of which his fon propofes to 
publifh at the conclufion of the fifth vo- 
dome of the Siberian Flora of Gmelin. 
Upon his return to Peterfourgh, he was 
Account of Gaertner the Bitanift, 
[ May T; 
fo happily fituated that he appeared ts 
have nothing farther to defire. Enjoying 
‘the greateft reputation, his fociety was 
courted by the learned : and he lived under 
the protection of a princefs, who regard- 
ing the arts as the principal inftruments of 
her glory, and, confidering it an honour to’ 
proteét them, beffowed on him the moft | 
diftinguifhed teftimonies of her favour. ~ 
The direétion of the garden, and the ca- 
binet of natural hiftory, the catalogue of 
which he had publifhed, was confided to 
his care. But theduties of this fituation, 
as well as thofe of an academician and 
profeffor, occupied fo much of his time, 
that he even found it difficult to maintain 
his conneétions with his early friends ; far 
lefs could he travel, as formerly, to con- 
verfe with the learned, or profit by the ex- 
amination of their collections ; befides, the 
project of executing a complete hiftory of 
fruits foymuch occupied his mind that he 
languifhed continually after retirement and 
leifure to execute this defign. Quitting, 
therefore, Peterfburgh, and renouncing 
fertune and ambition, he left his place te 
his friend Koelreuter, fo well known by 
his ingenious experiments on the produc- 
tion of hybrid plants ; and, preferving only 
his title of academician, refufed, from 
motives of delicacy, to retain the penfion 
annexed to this diftin&tion, notwithftand- 
ing every folicitation to that purpofe, as 
etherwife he conceived it would be incum- 
bent on him to tranfmit memoirs occafion- 
ally to the fociety, which he dreaded might 
interfere with the objeét to which he wifhed 
to dedicate his undivided attention. Not 
that his fortune was confiderable; but hav- 
ing built his happinefs ona more folid 
foundation, on ftudy, and the hope of being 
uleful, far from regarding the fciences as 
a path to riches or honour, he valued them 
only fo far as they enabled him to difpole 
of his time, or acquire knowledge. 
On his return from. Rufiia, about the 
end of the fummer of 1770, he fettled at — 
Calu, the place of his birth, where he mar- 
ried Mademoifelle Mutfhelin, and imme- 
diately began that immortal work which 
occupied him during the remainder of his 
life, and was the fruit of twenty years’ la- — 
bour. . ; 
After having fixed on the plan of his 
Carpology, he foon perceived that mate- 
rials were wanting for its execution, and 
that the fruits which could be procured at 
Calu were only a fall number of thofe he 
was defirous of examining. He had for- | 
merly viewed the numerous collections im 
England and Holland: but finding the 
notes he had taken on thefe occafions in- 
fofficient 
