Montpellier (Mongpel-yay'), the capital of the French dep. of Herault, on the Lez, 6 miles from the sea and 31 SW. of Nimes. Pop. (1872) 54,466; (1901)69,193. Lying near the centre of Langue-doc, on the great route from Italy and Provence to Spain, with its seaport at a point offering the shortest land-route not only to all parts of Languedoc, but to north France, Montpellier's position was a highly favourable one during the middle ages. Its schools of medicine, law, and arts were formally constituted a university by a papal bull in 1289, at which time the schools of law and medicine (the latter founded by Arabian physicians) rivalled those of Paris. Among its students and professors have been Petrarch, Arnaud de Villeneuve, Rabelais, Rondelet the anatomist, Casaubon, Lobel, Clusius, the brothers Bauhin, Magnol, Tournefort, the elder De Jussieu, and De Candolle; Clarendon also and Locke were residents. The oldest botanic garden in France was founded here in 1592, and De Candolle laid out the first botanic garden upon the natural system in 1810. The medical school also has had a notable history; and in 1890 the university celebrated its sexcentenary and was reorganised. The town has an important picture-gallery and library. A centre of wine production, Montpellier suffered greatly by the phylloxera ; it was here that the cure of grafting French vines upon American stocks was earliest applied. Of the mediaeval town little remains, its fortifications and most of its buildings, save the cathedral and the adjoining bishop's palace (which now houses the school of medicine), having been destroyed in the religious wars, in the Revolution, or by municipal improvements. The chief modern buildings are the theatre and law-courts; but the principal glory of the town is its two great terraces, forming public promenades overlooking the undulating country away to the Mediterranean, Cevennes, Pyrenees, and Alps.