Abstract
ON September 9 occurs the centenary of the death of the famous Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, the contemporary of de Saussure and Prevost and the father of Alphonse de Candolle (1806–93). Born at Geneva, February 4, 1778, he was the son of a magistrate of the republic of Geneva and received a good education. His taste for botany was stimulated by attending the lectures of Prof. J. Vaucher (1763–1841), a founder of the Geneva Natural History Society, and while still in his 'teens de Ca dolle went to Paris, residing at the house of Dolomieu and becoming acquainted with such as Vauquelin, Fourcroy, Cuvier, Lamarck and Desfontaines. In 1798 owing to the decline, through the political upheaval, of the family fortunes, he took up the study of medicine, but botany still remained his chief study, and in 1804 he began to lecture in the place of Cuvier at the College de France. In the summer of 1806 he began a series of official botanical journies through France and Italy, and in 1810 was appointed to the chair of botany at Montpellier with charge of the old botanical gardens.
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Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, For.Mem.R.S. Nature 148, 282 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148282a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148282a0