was now twenty-four years old, and, becoming a student of botany under
Bernard de Jussieu, for ten years gave unremitting attention to this
science, and especially to a study of the French flora.

Cuvier states that the _Flore Francaise_ appeared after "six months of
unremitting labor." However this may be, the results of over nine
preceding years of study, gathered together, written, and printed within
the brief period of half a year, was no hasty _tour de force_, but a
well-matured, solid work which for many years remained a standard one.

It brought him immediate fame. It appeared at a fortunate epoch. The
example of Rousseau and the general enthusiasm he inspired had made the
study of flowers very popular--"_une science a la mode_," as Cuvier
says--even among many ladies and in the world of fashion, so that the
new work of Lamarck, though published in three octavo volumes, had a
rapid success.

The preface was written by Daubenton.[15] Buffon also took much interest
in the work, opposing as it did the artificial system of Linne, for whom
he had, for other reasons, no great degree of affection. He obtained the
privilege of having the work published at the royal printing office at
the expense of the government, and the total proceeds of the sale of the
volumes were given to the author. This elaborate work at once placed
young Lamarck in the front rank of botanists, and now the first and
greatest honor of his life came to him. The young lieutenant,
disappointed in a military advancement, won his spurs in the field of
science. A place in botany had become vacant at the Academy of Sciences,
and M. de Lamarck having been presented in the second rank (_en seconde
ligne_), the ministry, a thing almost unexampled, caused him to be given
by the king, in 1779, the preference over M. Descemet, whose name was
presented before his, in the first rank, and who since then, and during
a long life, never could recover the place which he unjustly lost.[16]
"In a word, the poor officer, so neglected since the peace, obtained at
one stroke the good fortune, always very rare, and especially so at that
time, of being both the recipient of the favor of the Court and of the
public."[17]

[Illustration: LAMARCK AT THE AGE OF 35 YEARS]

The interest and affection felt for him by Buffon were of advantage to
him in another way. Desiring to have his son, whom he had planned to be
his successor as Intendant of the Royal Garden, and who had jus