It has always appeared to the writer of this, from the conversation and writings of French botanists, that the judgment of the learned Le and the coun tenance of his patron the Duke D'Ayen, afterwards 11Marechal de Nowlles, first established the reputation of Linnaeus in France ; not so much possibly for the sake of his system, as his discoveries, his comms diets noseac are, and his clear principle. of crigninittion. When Le Moonier botenized in in the company of the astronomers with whom he was associated, he soon found, like Dr Garden in South Carolina, that the classification of Tournefort was no key to the treasury of a new world. He however made his remarks and collections, and studied them subsequently under the auspices of a more comprehensive guide. The Marechal de Naailles, a great cultivator of exotic trees and shrubs, corresponded with the Swedish naturalist, and en deavoured to recommend him to the notice of the lovers of plants in France. Meantime Gerard and Gouan in the south, both introduced themselves to the illustrious Swede, and promulgated his principles and discoveries, though only the latter adopted his classification. Villars we have already noticed as the author of a Linwean Histoire des plantes de Dauphine. He died lately, Professor of Botany at Strasburgh, where he succeeded the very able and philosophical Hermann, one of the truest Linnieans, who had imbibed all the technical style of the Swe dish school, as well as its accuracy of discrimination. We may now safely announce Hermann as the real author, in conjunction perhaps with Baron Born, of that ingenious but bitter satyr the Monadiolo ig which the several species of monks are ;dis criminated, and their manners detailed, like the ani mals in the Linnican Systeme Nature. This ludi crous performance has to since appeared in•a, not very exact, English translation, and was rendered into French by the late M. Broussonet. As we are led again to name this amiable man, too soon lost to his country, after experiencing every vicissitude of revolutionsrueril and alarm, we cannot help dis ae one most zealous in the cultiva of Lisatean learning, a taste for which he chiefly imbibed in England. He bad no
indulgence for those prejudices, which cramped the talents of his countrymen, and prevented their de riving knowledge from any quarter where it was to be had. He recommended the younger Linnnus to their personal acquaintance and favour, which ser vice he also rendered, a few years after, to the per son who now commemorates his worth, and who will ever remember, with affection and regret, his many virtue*, his agreeable converse, and his various and extensive acquirements.
The intimacy which subsisted between this en thusiastic naturalist and the distinguished botanist L'Heritier, confirmed, if it did not originally im plant, in the mind of the latter, that strong bias which he ever showed for the Limnos principles of botany. According to these his numerous splendid works are composed. He moreover imbibed, if we mistake not, from the same source, a peculiar pre ference for uncoloured engravings of plants, instead of the coloured ones which bad long been in use. It cannot be denied that the merit of these last is very val1011% and sometimes very smell. They do, nevertheless, present to the wind a more ready idea of each species, than a simple engraving Can- do, nor is the latter lees liable to incorrectness. When plates are taken from the delineations of such ex quisite artists as L'Heritier they have a geed chance of excellence ; but engravings of Cavanilles, done after miserable drawings, though they deceive the eye by their neat finishing, are really less exact than many a rude outline. Colour ed plates, if executed with the uniformity and scien tific exactness of Mr Sowerby's, or the characteristic effect of Jacquin's, speak to the eye more readily than most engraving*. The art of printing in colours, practised formerly in England with small success, was revived at Paris by Bulliard, and is car ried to the highest perfection in the recent publica tions of Redoute and Ventenat, which leave hardly any thing to be wished for, with respect to beauty or exactness. Many of the works of L'Heritier have remained imperfect, in consequence of the political convulsions of his country, and his own premature death. The learned and worthy Desfonteines, who travelled in Barbary, has been more fortunate in the completion of his labours. His elegant Flora Atlas tics, in 2 vole. 4to, with finely engraved is classed :ind modelled on the plan of the Linnwan school. Such also is the plan of the works of that distinguished botanist La Billardiere who, besides his account of New Holland plants, has pub lished five elegant decades of new species from Syria. That scientific horticulturist M. Thouin, likewise a most excellent botanist, though he has scarcely written on the subject, is a correct pupil of the Swedish school. His general spirit of liberal com munication, and his personal attachment to the younger Linnaeus, led him to enrich the herbarium of the latter, with the choicest specimens of Com merson's great collection, destined otherwise to have remained in almost entire oblivion. A singular fate • has attended the discoveries of most of the French voyagers, such as Commerson, Sonnerat, and Dein bey, that, from one cause or other, they have scarce.. ly seen the light. So she it has iiappened to those of Tournefort, Sarraxin Plumier, and others, whose ocquisitioes have long dept in the Parisian museums. Happily there seems to have arisen of late a com mendable desire to render them useful by publication, and thus many plants, known merely by the slight and unscientific appellations of Tournefort, and therefore never adopted by Linnaeus, have re cently been clearly defined, or elegantly delineated. The journeys of Olivier and Michaux towards the east have enriched the Paris gardens, and been the means of restoring several lost Tournefortian plants. We believe however that the English nurseries have proved the most fertile source of augmentation to the French collections, as appears by the pages of all the recent descriptive writers in France.