158 A TASTE FOR BOTANY.

for the lad was idle and given to dissipation, and
being harshly treated left his home. He had a
relative at Montpellier in whom he found a friend;
and resolving to embrace the study of medicine, he
entered himself at the university of that town.
There he imbibed, under the celebrated Professor
Gouan, a taste for natural history, more especially
for botany ; and to this taste he sacrificed his pro-
fession, and resigned himself, regardless of conse-
quences, to the full enjoyment of his new bent.
The fine country around him filled him with de-
light. The south of France, with its varied and
extensive coasts, its fertile plains, and its wild and
lofty mountains, was his first theatre of observa-
tion. During the summer he roved at large; and
when the season of the year obliged him to retire
to his college, he returned to no studies but such
as fostered and improved his proficiency in his
darling pursuit. Whatever time was not devoted
to that was given to pleasure and to the indulgence
of youthful gaiety and folly. Happily for his
moral character and his worldly interest, and pro-
bably also for his scientific success, he was induced
to remove to Paris in 1772, to improve his botanical
knowledge under the instructions of Jussieu and
Lemounier. Three years later he travelled to
Berne, and visited the great Haller, who welcomed
with satisfaction a rising naturalist, uniting creat