or discoveries, eagerly communicated them to a man of genius, by whom to be mentioned was a sort of passport to immortality. M. D'Angiviller, whose place as director of the King's build ings, and chief of the Academies of Painting and Sculpture, required him to point out the great men whose statues were to be executed in marble at the public expense, asked permission of the King to erect one to Buffon. This was, perhaps, the most flattering distinction which could be conferred on a living man, as it had till then been reserved for the memory of those who had rendered the most eminent services to their country. But the King, reading the judgment of posterity regarding the merits of Buffon in that of his cotemporaries, assented to the proposal, and the celebrated Pajou was charged with the execution. This statue is now in the library of the Museum. We may easily conceive how gratifying the circumstance must have proved to one so sensible of the love of fame, and withal sufficiently impressed with a knowledge of his own high attainments. "The works of eminent geniuses," he used to say, "are few; they are those of Newton, Bacon, Leibnitz, Montesquieu, and my own." The health of Buffon, which had suffered severely during the preceding year, being perfectly re-established in the beginning of 1772, he resolved to fix his residence once more in the Garden, and to employ his whole influence for the benefit of the establishment. With the aid of government, he purchased two houses adjoining the museum, one of which he destined for the dwelling of the Intendant, and removed into it accordingly; the first floor was appropriated to his household, and the others to such objects as had not yet found their place in the Museum. The return of Buffon forms an epoch in the history of the Garden; from that moment, every branch of the establishment rapidly increased, and the way was prepared for the improvements which have taken place since the new organization. It would far exceed our utmost limits if we were to give a detail of all the improvements introduced by Buffon during the sixteen years of his administration. Suffice it to say, that the Garden was more than doubled in extent, its plan and distribution became regular and beautiful, and every possible advantage was offered for the culture and study of vegetables; but the perfection of one part of the establishment only rendered the deficiencies of the rest more apparent. The Cabinet was not spacious enough to contain the vast accession of objects, and the Amphitheatre was both too small, and in other respects inconvenient. In 1787, Buffon procured the purchase of the Hotel de Magny, with its courts and gardens, situated between the Hill of Evergreens, and the Rue de Seine; he there constructed the Amphitheatre, which now serves for the lectures of botany and chemistry, and removed the lodging of MM. Daubenton and Lacépède to the Hotel de Magny. The second floor of the Cabinet which was thus left vacant, was fitted up for the reception of the collections, and permission obtained from government to erect an addition to the former galleries; the work was immediately begun, and continued without intermission, but it was not completed till after the death of Buffon. As the buildings became more extensive, and the objects were disposed in a more striking manner, more value was attached to the collections, and the celebrity of the establishment increased. Individuals offered specimens to the Cabinet, where they were seen inscribed with the name of the donor, in preference to retaining them at home; learned societies eagerly contributed to the progress of knowledge, by enriching a public deposit; and sovereigns, as an agreeable present to the King, sent to his Museum duplicates of the curiosities in their own. The Academy of Sciences, for instance, having acquired Hunaud's anatomical collection, added it to that of Duverney in the Garden; the Count D'Angiviller gave Buffon his private cabinet; the Missionaries in China sent him whatever interesting objects they could procure in a country where they alone could penetrate; the King of Poland presented a very considerable collection of minerals; and the Empress of Russia, not being able to induce Buffon to visit St Petersburgh, invited his son, and on his return presented him with several animals from the North, which were wanting to the Cabinet, and with various objects of natural history collected in her dominions. History of the Garden of Plants. Meanwhile the government neglected nothing for the perfecting of an establishment which did honour to the nation as a repository of light, and a centre of communication. More considerable funds than had before been granted, were placed at the disposal of M. Daubenton, for the purchase of objects interesting from their rarity or their utility to science; foreign trees were transplanted; the Cabinet of Zoology was enriched by the collection of Sonnerat in India, by that of Commerson, made in Bougainville's voyage round the world, and by a part of that brought by Dombey from Peru and Chili, of which half the objects were detained by the Spanish government, who even prevented the publication of his narrative; commissions of correspondence, accompanied by a salary, were also given to learned travellers, who engaged to collect objects for the Botanical Garden and the Cabinet: Nevertheless, it must be owned, that all these collections were not at that moment of much utility, and it is only at a later period, and since the new organization of the establishment, that their importance has been felt, and their end attained. Buffon was not a friend to method; he described the exterior form, the habits and economy of animals, and ascended to the most elevated general views; but he disliked the labour of distinguishing characters, and settling principles of classification. In the arrangement of the Cabinet, he wished to excite curiosity by striking contrasts, so that, like his own writings, it should present a picture of the most remarkable things in nature, independent of system, which he regarded as the artifice of man. This manner of considering natural history, was particularly pleasing to a mind that delighted in contemplating the universe of things as a whole; and, indeed, in nature, where all is harmony, the most different beings are placed side by side, and the imagination seizes at once the links which unite, and the characters which separate them. According to Buffon, the end of a general collection was attained, when it captivated the attention, and led the beholder to seek in living nature what was thus imperfectly represented; it was even deemed a useful exercise to separate what related to a peculiar study, from the crowd of objects that surrounded it. VOL. XIV. 129 One of the worst consequences of this system was the neglect of whatpublic. When a collection arrived, ever was not calculated to interest the lected to fill the empty spaces, and the the most remarkable objects were serest were preserved in boxes, or allow ed to remain in the obscurity of their packing cases. As there was, at this period, no professor of zoology, or of mineralogy, the botanical garden was the only part of the establishment methodically distributed throughout. Yet, having effected what it was perhaps far from reproaching Buffon with not impossible at that time to perform, we should rather acknowledge our obliganot only the numerous collection of tions to him for having assembled, of fishes described by M. de Lacépède, birds contained in his work, and that but also a multitude of objects of all kinds, which have since been properly arranged, and have eminently contributed to the progress of natural history. In 1784, Daubenton the younger his place of keeper and demonstrator being obliged by bad health to resign of the Cabinet, Buffon appointed, as his successor, M. de Lacépède, who was history, in which he has since made thus fixed in the pursuit of natural and an author. so eminent a figure, both as a professor this period chairs for botany, anatomy, We have said that there were at and chemistry only; but as Daubenton and his assistant repaired daily to the Cabinet, naturalists were enabled to obtain explanations of the objects before them, and these private lessons adapted to the capacity and knowwere the more useful, as they were ledge of the hearers. Lemonier had and Bernard de Jussieu demonstrator been Professor of Botany since 1758, since 1722; but, the former being obliged to reside at Versailles, and through age, M. de Jussieu, his nethe latter finding himself weakened phew, was chosen to supply the place of both, and was thus charged with the lectures in the garden, and the botanical excursions in the country. nard de Jussieu intrusted the details During the last years of his life, Berof cultivation wholly to M. André Thouin, and it was a signal satisfacof the Botanic Garden. When he walktion to him to witness the replanting ed in the establishment, his former R pupils crowded around him, listening to him with eagerness, and treasuring up with veneration his slightest words. Among his many services to the Garden must be reckoned the education of his nephew, who has made of botany a regular science, by developing and perfecting the natural method. M.Desfontaines was appointed Professor of Botany about the year 1786, immediately after his return from Barbary with the plants of which he has since published the history. At the period of his appointment, the Botanic Garden was already very rich; and the instruction was no longer limited to the demonstration of medicinal plants; for the progress of the science since Tournefort, by the intermediate labours of Linnæus, Adanson, and de Jussieu, authorized and required a more philosophic plan. M. Desfontaines was the first to perceive the importance of a general knowledge of the nature of vegetables, the functions peculiar to each organ, and the phenomena of the different periods of their developement, in order duly to understand their generic and specific characters; he, therefore, divided his course into two parts; the first he devoted to the anatomy and physiology of vegetables; the second to the classification and description of the genera and species. From that period, botanical instruction was no longer confined to the exterior forms of plants, but comprised their affinities, uses, and modifications. To the method of teaching adopted in the King's Garden since 1788, are to be ascribed those works which have made vegetable physiology the basis of botany, and led to the applications of this science in agriculture and the arts. Buffon died on the 16th of April, 1788, and his place of Chief Intendant of the King's Garden was given to the Marquis de la Billarderie. We come now to the third and last period of our history, that which extends from the death of Buffon down to the present time, including the epoch of the new organization, to which we have already occasionally alluded. On the 20th of August, 1790, M. Lebrun made a report, in the name of the committee of finances of the Constituent Assembly, on the state of the King's Garden, in which its expenses were estimated at 92,222 francs; 12,777 being necessary for repairs. This re port, which was the signal for a new organization, was followed by the draught of a decree proposing the reduction of the Intendant's salary from 12,000 to 8000 francs; the suppression of several places, particularly that of commandant of the police of the Garden; an increased stipend to some of the professors; the creation of a chair of natural history, &c. &c. The disorders of the revolution beginning at this period, M. de la Billarderie withdrew from France, and his place of Intendant was filled by the appointment of M. de St Pierre, in 1792. St Pierre undertook the direction of the King's Garden at a difficult conjuncture. That distinguished writer was gifted with eminent talents as a painter of nature, and a master of the milder affections; he knew at once to awaken both the heart and the imagination; but he wanted exact notions in science, and his timid and melancholy character deprived him of that knowledge of the world, and that energy of purpose, which are alike requisite for the exertion of authority. Nevertheless, he was precisely the man for the crisis. His quiet and retired life shielded him from persecution, and his prudence was a safeguard to the establishment. He presented several memoirs to the ministry, containing some very sound regulations, conceived in a spirit of economy which circumstances rendered necessary. In these memoirs may always be noticed the following words:-"After consulting the elders," by which term he designated the persons who had been long attached to the establishment, though without an official share in its administration. At a period so pregnant with disaster to the fortunes of the King, it may well be supposed that the King's wild beasts would not meet with a kinder treatment than the rest of the family. In fact, the Menagerie at Versailles being abandoned, and the animals likely to perish of hunger, M. Couturier, intendant of the King's domains in that city, offered them, by order of the minister, to M. St Pierre; but, as he had neither convenient places for their reception, nor means of providing for their subsistence, he prevailed on M. Couturier to keep them, and immediately addressed a memoir to the government on the importance of esta blishing a Menagerie in the Garden. This address had the desired effect, and proper measures were ordered to be taken for the preservation of the animals, and their removal to the Museum; which, however, was deferred till eighteen months after. A decree of the Legislative Assembly having about this time suppressed the universities, the faculties of medicine, &c., there was reason to fear that the King's Garden would have been in volved in the same proscription; but, as the people were led to believe that it was destined for the culture of medicinal plants, and that the laboratory of chemistry was a manufactory of saltpetre, the establishment escaped destruction. At last, on the 10th of June, 1793, a decree for the organization was obtained, chiefly by the exertions of M. Lakanal, President of the Committee of Public Instruction. The following are some of the most essential articles : "The establishment shall henceforth be called the Museum of Natural History.. "Its object shall be the teaching of Natural History in all its branches. "Twelve courses of lectures shall be given in the Museum. 1. A course of Mineralogy. 2. A course of General Chemistry. 3. A course of Chemistry applied to the Arts. 4. A course of Botany. 5. A course of Rural Botany. 6. A course of Agriculture. 7 and 8. Two courses of Zoology. 9. A course of Human Anatomy. 10. A course of Comparative Anatomy. 11. A course of Geology. 12. A course of Iconography." The third section provides for the formation of a library, where all the books on natural history in the public repositories, and the duplicates of those in the National Library, shall be assembled; and also the drawings of plants and animals taken from nature in the Museum. By the above decree, twelve chairs were established, without naming the professors; the distribution of their functions being left to the officers themselves. These were MM. Daubenton, keeper of the Cabinet, and Professor of Mineralogy in the College of France; Fourcroy, Professor of Chemistry; Brogniart, Demonstrator; Desfontaines, Professor of Botany; De Jussieu, Demonstrator; Portal, Professor of Anatomy; Bertrud, Demonstrator; Lamarck, Botanist of the Cabinet, and Keeper of the Herbarium; Faujas St Fond, Assistant Keeper of the Cabinet, and Corresponding Secretary; Geoffrey, Sub-demonstrator of the Cabinet; Vanspaendonck, Painter; Thouin, First Gardener. The general administration of the Cabinet belonged to the Assembly, and the care of the collections to the several Professors; the places of keeper and assistant keepers of the Cabinet were therefore suppressed. But, as it was necessary to have some person charged with the key of the galleries, the preservation of the objects, and the reception of visitors, these were devolved on M. Lucas, who had passed his life in the establishment, and enjoyed the confidence of M. Buffon. M. André Thouin, being made Professor of Agriculture, M.John Thouin was appoint ed First Gardener. Four places of Assistant Naturalist were created, for the arrangement and preparation of objects under the direction of the Professors; and these appointments were in favour of MM. Desmoulins, Dufresne, Valenciennes, and Deleuze,→→ the two first for Zoology, the others for Mineralogy and Botany; and three painters were attached to the establishment--M. Marechal, and the brothers, Henry and Joseph Redouté. At the same time the Library was disposed for the reception of the books and drawings; which last already filled sixty-four port-folics. The animals were removed from the Menagerie at Versailles in 1794. The report of the Committee of Public Instruction approved the regulations of the Professors, and fixed the organization of the Museum in its present form, with the exception of slight modifications exacted by the change of circumstances. A law in conformity, of the 11th of December, 1797, created a third chair of Zoology, to which M. de Lacépède was appointed, gave the whole administration of the establishment to the Professors, increa sed their salary from 2800 to 5000 francs; fixed the expenses of the following year at 194,000 francs; and ordained the purchase of certain additional lands for the Garden. Notwithstanding this apparent progress, however, the delightful region of which we are now sketching the history, began, in common with every other institution, to experience the effects of what the ingenious Professor Feldborg would have called, "the wretched state of the world at that juncture." The reduced state of the finances, the depreciation of the funds, the cessation of foreign commerce, and the employment of every species of revenue and industry for the prosecution of the war, "bella horrida bella," were serious hindrances to the project of improvement. Painful contrasts were visible in all directions. Houses and lands of great value were annexed to the Garden, and magnificent collections were acquired; yet funds were wanting to pay the workmen, and your common potato was cultivated in beds destined for the rarest and most beautiful of exotic flowers. Ere long, however, some of the official administrators of the Museum were called to situations in the government of the nation, and used their influence in favour of their favourite haunts-" loving the spot which once they gloried in. At the end of the year 1794, the Amphitheatre of the Garden was finished in its present state, and in it was opened, on the 25th of January, 1795, the Normal School; an extraordinary institution, but founded on an unfeasible and visionary plan. It was fancied that men already ripe in years, by a few lectures from eminent masters, might be rendered capable of extending instruction, and diffusing through the provinces the elements of science, which very few of themselves had been prepared by previous education to understand. Every reasonable man felt the impossibility of realizing such a scheme, and the institution fell of itself soon after. It had the good effect, however, of exciting the public attention and fixing it upon an establishment, become, as it were, the type of all institutions that might be formed for the study of nature. The most important event connected with the history of the Garden which occurred about this period, was the voyage of Captain Baudin. In 1796, this gentleman informed the officers of the Museum, that, during a long residence in Trinidad, he had formed a rich collection of natural history, which he was unable to bring away, but which he would return in quest of if they would procure him a vessel. The proposition was acceded to by the government, with the injunction that Captain Baudin should take with him four naturalists. The persons appointed to accompany him were Maugé and Levillain, for zoology; Ledru, for botany; and Reidley, gardener of the Museum, a man of active and indefatigable zeal. Captain Baudin weighed anchor from Havre on the 30th September, 1796. He was wrecked off the Canary Isles, but was furnished with another vessel by the Spanish government, and shaped his course towards Trinidad. That island, however, had in the meantime fallen into our hands. The party, being thus unable to land, repaired first to St Thomas, and then to Porto Rico, where they remained about a year, and then returned to Europe. They entered the port of Frecamp in June, 1798. The collections, forwarded by the Seine, arrived at the Museum on the 12th of July following. Never had so great a number of living plants, and especially of trees, from the West Indies been received at once; there were one hundred large tubs, several of which contained stocks from six to ten feet high. They had been so skilfully taken care of during the passage, that they arrived in full vegetation, and succeeded perfectly in the hot-houses. The two zoologists brought back a numerous collection of quadrupeds, birds, and insects. That of birds, made by Maugé, was particularly interesting, from their perfect preservation, and from the fact, that the greater part were new to the Mu seum. In 1798, the Professors presented a Memoir to the government, exposing the wants of the Museum. The magnificent collections which had been received were still in their cases, liable to be destroyed by insects, and comparatively useless for want of room to display them. There were no means of nourishing the animals, because the contractors who were not paid refused to make further advances. The lions became sulky for lack of food; and even the tigers shewed symptoms of displeasure, and forewent their "wonted cheerfulness." The same distress existed in 1799, which was the more to be regretted from the value of the recent collections. Of these the more important were the following :-In June, 1795, arrived the cabinet of the Stadtholder, rich in every branch of natural history, and especially of zoology. In February, M. Desfontaines |