Wonders Of The Plant World Or Curiosities Of Vegetable Life PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870 edition. Excerpt: ...or the bread-fruit tree. One reason for its limited fame is the comparatively recent date of its introduction into Europe. There was born at Aix, in Provence, on the 7th of April 1727, one Michel Adanson; born of French parents, but descended from a Scottish stock. He was educated at Paris. At an early age he manifested a warm love of natural history studies, and was never weary of investigating the properties of plants or the habits of animals. With such tastes it was fortunate for him that his masters were Reaumur, the inventor of the well-known thermometer, and Bernard de Jussieu, the eminent naturalist. When only twenty-one years old, he embarked for Senegal, considering that there a vast and unoccupied field lay before him in the study of the productions of that part of THE ADANSONIA DIGITATA. 131 Africa. He spent five years in the colony, and gathered together very valuable and extensive collections of plants and animals. Then he returned to France, and about 1757 published an account of his labours and adventures, entitled, "Histoire Naturelle du Senegal." In this work was embodied a description of the remarkable tree to which I have referred, and which the Africans know by the name of the Baobab. Before I proceed to say a few words about its marvels, I may state that Adanson spent a long and virtuous life in the pursuit of his favourite studies; that he suffered great privations during the stormy time of the French Revolution; and that he died on the 6th of August 1806, in the eightieth year of his age. As a monument to his memory, botanists have named the Baobab, in their scientific nomenclature, Adansonia digitata. The genus to which it belongs, and of which it forms the only known species, is included in the natural...