DECANDoLLE, Auousrrx PVIZA31E, one of the most eminent of botanists, was born at Geneva, 4th Feb., 1878, and was descended from an ancient noble family of Pro. vence, which was compelled to seek refuge in Geneva from religious persecution about 1558. His father was a syndic of Geneva, and had an estate near Yverdun, where much of D.'s boyhood was spent. Ile received his education in the gymnasium of Geneva, distinguished himself by his attainments in classical scholarship and his love of poetry, as well as by his delight in the study of history, to which and to the profes sion of law lie proposed to devote himself. But after he had begun his studies for this profession, the union of Geneva with the French republic in 1798 made such a change in his prospects, that he thought proper to relinquish it for that of medicine; having also in the meantime learned to delight in the physical sciences, particularly chemistry and botany, to which the lectures of Voucher at Geneva in 1796 very much contributed. From this time forth, these were the great pursuits of his life, and lie never ceased to study and investigate the relations of these two sciences to each other. Ile went to Paris, where he prosecuted his studies, and where his botanical publications soon won for him a distinguished place among the scientific men of his time. A work on succulent plants (Par. 1799-1803), one of the species of astragalus (Par. 1802), and some less important works, were followed by his extremely valuable Essaz sill- les Pro prietes Medicales des Plantes (Essay on the Medicinal Properties of Plants), (Par. 1804). In 1802, he was called to a professorship in the academy of Geneva, but preferred to remain in Paris, and delivered his first botanical lectures in the college de France. in
1804, appeared the first volume of his Fiore Francaise. Employed by the government, he visited all parts of France and of the kingdom of Italy in 1806-12, investigating their botany and agriculture; but the events of 1814 prevented the production of the great statistical work in which it was intended to embody the results of these investigations. On the fall of Napoleon, he was compelled to retreat to Geneva, where a professorship of botany was founded for him, and where he spent the remainder of his life. His hem* Elementaire de Botanigue (Par. 1813) was followed by two other works, the fruits of his studies in systematic botany and the properties and natural affinities of plants. and by which the true knowledge of that science has been wonderfully pro moted, his Regni Vegetabilis Systema Naturak (2 vols., Par. 1818-21), and his Prodromus Systematis Naturals Regni Yegetabllis (vols. 1-10, Par. 1824-46). D.'s labors estab lished on a surer basis, and improved in many of its most important respects, the natural system of botany which Jussieu had attempted to found. Sec BoTnicv. The latter years of D.'s life were years of sickness and suffering, and he died of dropsy on 9th Sept., 1841. He bequeathed his collections—including a herbarium of more than 70,000 species of plants—to his son, ALPIIONSE DECANDOLLE, on condition of his keeping them open to the public, and of his carrying on the Prodromus. The younger D. accordingly devoted himself to this work, which he completed with the 17th volume. He also is a botanist of no mean fame, and author of several botanical works, among which are an Introduction d let llotanique (1835), and the Geographic Botanigue (1855); also an Hi:stozre des Sciences (1872).