[From the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Volume XL p. xvii. Read December 5,1856].

Francois Andre Michaux, the subject of this memoir, belonged essentially to that class of scientific explorers who, by their devotion.to science and their energy in promoting the welfare of mankind, may justly be viewed in the light of benefactors of their race.

When we consider the noble spirit with which such men enter upon their ha-zardous enterprises - when we witness the fortitude with which they encounter the fatigues and inconveniences of their distant voyages in regions as yet unexplored - we cannot withhold from them the expression of our admiration. It is not a spirit of egotism that moves them onwards; it is not for their personal gratification, nor with the view of enriching themselves by their discoveries, that they desert their family hearth and separate themselves from the fatherland. Their object is disinterested, and of the noblest character. They labor for the advancement of science, and, above all, for the benefit and enjoyments of their fellow-beings.

To what toils, to what privations and dangers, must they not necessarily expose themselves in order to attain the object they have in view? Behold them wending their way through inextricable forests; through pestilential marshes; over grounds untrodden by the human foot - struggling and panting under the rays of a torrid sun, or shivering under heavy showers of rain - now clambering over steep rocks, and next descending into deep precipices, constantly exposed to dangers of every description.

To men of this class we already owe many of those succulent vegetables which cover our tables; those delicious fruits which enrich our gardens and orchards; those fine trees, shrubs, and flowering plants which grow by the side of our native trees, ornament our parterres and pleasure-grounds, or are cultivated in our greenhouses. The peach, the apricot, the cherry, the almond, as well as the greater part of our most valuable garden vegetables, were obtained from Asia, the cradle of the human race; the walnut came from the Black Sea; the pear, the apple, the chestnut, from the forests of Europe; the orange from India; the sugar cane from China; the maize and potato from South America, etc. And, ere long, through the persevering exertions of Francis Michaux, Europeans will enjoy, in their own fields, the refreshing shades of the finest and most useful trees of our native forests; of those, especially, which are employed in civil and naval constructions, or in cabinet work. As Americans, we are ourselves under peculiar obligations to him for an accurate knowledge of our forest-trees, and for the good advice which his experience has enabled him to give us on points of national economy connected with arboriculture.

Francois Andre Michaux was born on the 16th of August, 1770, at Satory, a royal domain situated in the vicinity of Versailles, which, for'several generations, had been intrusted by the Crown to the administration and management of his ancestors. He was the only son of Andr6 Michaux,* who, with Catesby, Clayton, Bartram, Kalm, and Walter, was one of the pioneers of botanical explorations in the North American regions. His mother, Cecile Claye, was a daughter of a rich farmer of Beauce. She died eleven months after her marriage, leaving behind her a son, the subject of this notice.

* See Horticulturist, page 353, ante.

Of the early life of Francois Andre Michaux, I have not been able to collect much information. It is probable that he was brought up on the farm of Satory, in the practical school of his father and of one of his uncles, upon whom devolved, after the departure of the former, the sole management of this extensive royal estate. It may be inferred, also, from his writings and instinctive conversation, that his collegiate education had not been neglected.

His father, whose history is inseparably linked with that of his son, had devoted all bis life to the progress of agriculture and the sciences; his main ambition had been to effect something that might redound to the advantage of his native country, and, with this view, he had early turned his attention to agriculture, the advancement of which, he had soon perceived, could not be more securely attained than by enriching its domain with such products of foreign climes as were unknown to his own country, and susceptible of acclimation. In order to accomplish his object, he determined to visit new regions, possessing climates similar to that of France, and to bring back thence such of their productions as might prove of advantage to his native land.

To effect that purpose, he prepared himself by a proper course of studies, and by devoting his particular attention to the science of botany, under the great Bernard de Jussieu. He first visited England; he next made several explorations in the mountains of Auvergne, and in the Pyrenees; then in Spain; and embarked afterwards for Persia, in the capacity of secretary to the French consul at Ispahan, but, in reality, for the sole purpose of exploring that country, then almost unknown to scientific men. From 1782 to 1785 he surveyed the whole of the Persian provinces between the river Tigris and the Euphrates, and returned to France with an extensive collection of specimens and a large quantity of seeds of every kind.

During the absence of the elder Michaux, the French government had been agitating the important question of introducing into the forests of France such exotic trees as would be calculated to increase the national resources, with respect to naval constructions. The information which had been received from the United States, in this regard, had been exceedingly encouraging; and Michaux, who had just returned from Asia, was chosen for that particular errand, with instructions to procure for the royal nurseries all the young trees, shrubs, and seeds he could possibly send. In consequence, he made all proper preparations, and embarked at L'Orient on the 25th of August, 1785, taking with him his son, then only fifteen years of age, and a journeyman gardener of the name of Paul Saulnier, of whom I shall speak hereafter. They landed at New York on the first of October following.