as not to decide his career. After peace had been signed he was sent
into garrison at Toulon and Monaco, where an inflammation of the
lymphatic ganglions of the neck necessitated an operation which left him
deeply scarred for life.

"The vegetation in the neighbourhood of Toulon and Monaco now arrested
the young officer's attention. He had already derived some little
knowledge of botany from the '_Traite des Plantes usuelles_' of Chomel.
Having retired from the service, and having nothing beyond his modest
pension of four hundred francs a year, he took a situation at Paris with
a banker; but drawn irresistibly to the study of nature, he used to
study from his attic window the forms and movements of clouds, and made
himself familiar with the plants in the Jardin du Roi or in the public
gardens. He began to feel that he was on his right path, and understood,
as Voltaire said of Condorcet, that discoveries of permanent value could
make him no less illustrious than military glory.

"Dissatisfied with the botanical systems of his time, in six months he
wrote his '_Flore francaise_,' preceded by the '_Cle dichotomique_,'
with the help of which it is easy even for a beginner to arrive with
certainty at the name of the plant before him." Of this work, M. Martins
tells us in a note, that the second edition, published by Candolle in
1815, is still the standard work on French plants.

"In 1778 Rousseau had brought botany into vogue. Women and men of
fashion took to it. Buffon had the three volumes of '_Flore francaise_'
printed at the royal press, and in the following year Lamarck entered
the Academy of Sciences. Buffon being anxious that his son should
travel, gave him Lamarck for his companion and tutor. He thus made a
trip through Holland, Germany, and Hungary, and became acquainted with
Gleditsch at Berlin, with Jacquin at Vienna, and with Murray at
Gottingen.

"The '_Encyclopedie methodique_,' begun by Diderot and D'Alembert, was
not yet completed. For this work Lamarck wrote four volumes, describing
all the then known plants whose names began with the letters from A to
P. This great work was completed by Poiret, and comprises twelve
volumes, which appeared between the years 1783 and 1817. A still more
important work, also part of the Encyclopedia, and continually quoted by
botanists, is the '_Illustration des Genres_.' In this work Lamarck
describes two thousand _genera_, and illustrates them, according to the
title-page