mily, which, it may be seen, was for at
least three centuries a military one.[6] The family of Monet, Seigneur
de Saint-Martin et de Sombran, was maintained as a noble one by order of
the Royal Council of State of June 20, 1678. He descended (I) from
Bernard de Monet, esquire, captain of the chateau of Lourdes, who had as
a son (II) Etienne de Monet, esquire, who, by contract dated August 15,
1543, married Marguerite de Sacaze. He was the father of (III) Pierre
de Monet, esquire, "Seigneur d'Ast, en Bearn, guidon des gendarmes de la
compagnie du roi de Navarre." From him descended (IV) Etienne de Monet,
esquire, second of the name, "Seigneur d'Ast et Lamarque, de Julos." He
was a captain by rank, and bought the estate of Saint-Martin in 1592. He
married, in 1612, Jeanne de Lamarque, daughter of William de Lamarck,
"Seigneur de Lamarque et de Bretaigne." They had three children, the
third of whom was Philippe, "chevalier de Saint-Louis, commandant du
chateau de Dinan, Seigneur de Bazentin, en Picardy," who, as we have
already seen, was the father of the naturalist Lamarck, who lived from
1744 to 1829. The abbe relates that Philippe, the father of the
naturalist, was born at Saint-Martin, in the midst of Bigorre, "_in
pleine Bigorre_," and he very neatly adds that "the Bigorrais have the
right to claim for their land of flowers one of the glories of
botany."[7]

The name was at first variously spelled de Lamarque, de la Marck, or
de Lamarck. He himself signed his name, when acting as secretary of the
Assembly of Professors-administrative of the Museum of Natural History
during the years of the First Republic, as plain Lamarck.

The inquiry arises how, being the eleventh child, he acquired the title
of chevalier, which would naturally have become extinct with the death
of the oldest son. The Abbe Dulac suggests that the ten older of the
children had died, or that by some family arrangement he was allowed to
add the domanial name to the patronymic one. Certainly he never
tarnished the family name, which, had it not been for him, would have
remained in obscurity.

As to his father's tastes and disposition, what influence his mother had
in shaping his character, his home environment, as the youngest of
eleven children, the nature of his education in infancy and boyhood,
there are no sources of information. But several of his brothers entered
the army, and the domestic atmosphere was apparently a military one.

Philippe de