De Candolle, Augustin Pyrame

deh kon-dol', Augustin Pyrame (1778-1841), a noted French botanist. He was born at Geneva and educated first for the law, then for medicine. It is noticeable that the botanists of the eighteenth century approached their favorite science by way of medicine. De Candolle was wont to excuse himself for leaving medicine by saying, "If I make a mistake in naming a plant, I can set it right." Influential friends wondered that a man of his talents should spend his time running about France gathering plants. After holding various positions De Candolle settled down in a professorship at Geneva, where he accumulated a large herbarium and wrote several botanical treatises. He named many plants new to science. De Candolle was a close reader of Linnaeus' works, but adopted the classification of Ray and Jussieu.