s of rare plants,
interesting minerals, and observations made during his travels in
Holland, Germany, and in France. He did not receive any compensation for
this service."

[21] "The illustrious Intendant of the Royal Garden and Cabinet had
concentrated in his hands the most varied and extensive powers. Not only
did he hold, like his predecessors, the _personnel_ of the establishment
entirely at his discretion, but he used the appropriations which were
voted to him with a very great independence. Thanks to the universal
renown which he had acquired both in science and in literature, Buffon
maintained with the men who succeeded one another in office relations
which enabled him to do almost anything he liked at the Royal Garden."
His manner to public men, as Condorcet said, was conciliatory and
tactful, and to his subordinates he was modest and unpretending.
(Professor G. T. Hamy, _Les Derniers Jours du Jardin du Roi_, etc.,
p. 3.) Buffon, after nearly fifty years of service as Intendant, died
April 16, 1788.

CHAPTER III

LAMARCK'S SHARE IN THE REORGANIZATION OF THE JARDIN DES PLANTES AND
MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Even in his humble position as keeper of the herbarium, with its
pitiable compensation, Lamarck, now an eminent botanist, with a European
reputation, was by no means appreciated or secure in his position. He
was subjected to many worries, and, already married and with several
children, suffered from a grinding poverty. His friend and supporter,
La Billarderie, was a courtier, with much influence at the Tuileries,
but as Intendant of the Royal Garden without the least claim to
scientific fitness for the position; and in 1790 he was on the point of
discharging Lamarck.[22] On the 20th of August the Finance Committee
reduced the expenses of the Royal Garden and Cabinet, and, while raising
the salary of the professor of botany, to make good the deficiency thus
ensuing suppressed the position of keeper of the herbarium, filled by
Lamarck. Lamarck, on learning of this, acted promptly, and though in
this cavalier way stricken off from the rolls of the Royal Garden, he
at once prepared, printed, and distributed among the members of the
National Assembly an energetic claim for restoration to his office.[23]
His defence formed two brochures; in one he gave an account of his life,
travels, and works, and in the other he showed that the place which he
filled was a pressing necessity, and could not be convenie