DE CANDOLLE, AUGUSTIN PY'RAMUS, was born at Geneva, where his father was premier syndic, in 1778, the year in which Haller, Linnmns, and Bernard de Juesieu died. His family originally came from Marseille, but had for more than two centuries been settled at Geneva. His earliest tastes were altogether of a literary kind, and from infancy he was distinguished for the ardour with which he pursued his studies. He was remarkable for the facility with which he wroth verses, a habit in which he indulged throughout life. In 1792, with his mother and brother, he sought refuge, whilst the French were besieging Geneva, in a village situated at the foot of the Jura. Here he amused himself in collecting wild plants, and acquired a taste for botany, which, on subsequently attending the lectures of Professor Vaucher in his native city, became the occupation of his life. In 1796 he went to Paris, and attended the lectures of Vauquelin, Cuvier, and Fourcroy. He also became intimately acquainted with Desfontaines and Lamarck.
The first efforts of De Candolle in botanical science were rather directed to the observation of facts and the accurate distinction of species, than to the theories connected with the physiology or develop ment of plants. His first publication was a description of succulent plants, delineations of which were supplied by ]tedoutd. He also drew up the descriptions for the magnificent work of the seine artist on the 'Liliacem,' which was published in 1802. After a short with drawal from Paris on account of the political state of France, lie returned there in 1804, and took his degree of Doctor of Medicine. His thesis on this occasion was on the medical properties of plants. In this masterly. essay, which he subsequently republished much enlarged, he demonstrated satisfactorily the close connection that exists between the sciences of botany and medicine, and it led to an increasing attention to the structure and secretions of plants, as affording at once the aliment of man in health and his medicine in disease. In the same year he delivered in the College of Franca a
course of lectures on the principles of botanical arrangement, of which he gave a sketch in the introduction to the third edition of Lamarck's ' Flora of France,' which was published in the following year. This sketch gave an outline of those principles of classification which in after life became the basis of those great works on which his fame as a botanist must principally rest. Although nearly every botanist had yielded to the influence of tho artificial system of Linnieue, De Candolle at this period correctly estimated its merits. "The natural method," he observed, "endeavours to place each Individual object in the midst of those with which it possesses the greatest number of points of resemblance; the artificial has no other end than that of enabling us to recognise each individual plant, and to isolate it from the rest of the vegetable kingdom. The former, being truly a science, will servo as an immutable foundation for anatomy and physiology to build upon; whilst the second, being a mere empirical art, may indeed offer some conveniences for practical purposes, but does nothing towards enlarging the boundaries of science, and places before us an indefinite number of arbitrary arrangements. The former, searching merely after truth, has established its foundation on the organs that are of the greatest importance to the existence of plants, without considering whether these organs are easy or difficult of observation ; the second, aiming only at facility, bases its distinctions upon those which are most readily examined, and therefore present the greatest facilities for study." In the collection of plants Da Candolle spared no personal pains, and from tho time of hia being associated with Lamarck to 1812, travelled over every district of the then extensive possessions of Franco for the purpose of examining its native plants. In these excursions also he was frequently employed by the government to report upon the state of agriculture.