516 
Minutes  of  the  College. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Phaem. 
t    Nov.  1, 1873. 
In  1844  Durand  was  elected  Vice-President  of  the  College  of  Pharmacy. 
In  1851  Mrs.  Durand,  who,  during  twenty-six  years  had  been  his  companion 
and  friend,  died  at  their  home  on  Ninth  street,  which  event  induced  him  to 
retire  from  business  in  favor  of  his  son,  and  devote  his  leisure  time  entirely  to 
botanical  studies.  Though  so  long  a  resident  of  the  United  States,  and  pos- 
sessing an  excellent  command  of  the  English  language  so  as  to  write  it  fluently 
and  correctly,  his  conversation  was  always  marked  with  a  French  accent,  and 
sometimes  with  French  idiom.  He  was  a  good  Latin  scholar,  wrote  with  great 
facility  in  a  close  set  hand-writing,  and  was  the  author  of  several  biographical 
and  scientific  memoirs.  In  1854  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society,  and  was  subsequently  one  of  its  curators. 
In  1855  he  published,  in  connection  with  Dr.  Hilgard,  a  memoir  on  the  plants 
collected  in  the  expedition  of  Lieut.  R.  Williamson,  U.  S.  Engineer,  to  Cali- 
fornia, and  another,  called  "Plantce  Prattenense"  on  an  extensive  collection  of 
plants  made  by  Mr.  Pratten  in  Nevada  and  adjacent  territory.  In  1856  he 
published  an  enumeration  of  the  plants  collected  in  Dr.  Kane's  first  expedition 
to  the  Arctic  regions,  in  the  Journal  of  the  Academy.  About  this  time  he  wrote 
and  read  before  the  Philosophical  Society  a  biographical  memoir  of  the  late 
Frangois  Andre  Michaux,  the  author  of  the  "  Sylva  Americana,"  who  willed 
a  sum  of  money  for  the  establishment  of  a  park  of  American  forest  trees,  which 
is  now  existing  in  Fairmount  Park,  and  known  as  the  "  Michaux  Grove."  In 
1857  he  commenced  the  work  of  separating  the  North  American  plants  in  the 
herbarium  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  and  forming  them  into  a  distinct 
collection,  which  occupied  him  several  years,  often  working  four  hours  daily 
in  the  botanical  room  of  the  Academy.  His  labors  in  connection  with  this 
valued  institution  will,  however,  be  more  fittingly  enlarged  upon  by  a  special 
memorialist  appointed  by  the  Academy.  In  this  year  he  was  elected  an  honor- 
ary member  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association.  In  1859  he  pub- 
lished a  memoir  entitled,  "A  Sketch  of  the  Botany  of  the  Basin  of  the  Great 
Salt  Lake  of  Utah." 
In  1859  his  friend,  Dr.  Thomas  Nuttall,  author  of  the  three  volumes  in  con- 
tinuation of  Michaux's  Sylva  and  other  works,  and  so  many  years  the  botanist 
in  chief  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  at  Philadelphia,  died  in  England. 
The  memoir  written  of  him  by  Durand  is  said  to  be  one  of  the  best  notices  of 
that  distinguished  botanist  and  ornithologist,  of  whom  he  was  the  successor  in 
the  botanical  department  of  the  Academy. 
In  1860  Durand  visited  France  a  second  time,  and  derived  great  pleasure 
from  intercourse  with  his  relatives,  and  many  friends  who  had  been  with  him  in 
"The  Grand  Army."  He  also  for  the  first  time  visited  England,  and  was 
greatly  pleased  with  the  gardens  and  museums  of  London  and  vicinity.  Whilst 
in  Paris  he  had  occasion  to  examine  the  herbarium  of  the  "  Garden  of  Plants," 
and  finding  the  collection  of  North  American  plants  very  incomplete,  he  deter- 
mined to  remedy  the  deficiency  by  sending  over  his  own  fine  collection.  Ascer- 
taining, however,  on  his  return,  that  he  could  yet  make  valuable  additions  to  hi8 
collection,  rendering  it  more  complete,  he  subscribed  to  all  the  botanical  ex- 
peditions, and  set  to  work  himself  to  collect,  making  excursions  every  summer,. 
