GAUDICHAUD-BEAUPRÉ, Charles (1789-1854), a French botanist, was born at Angoulême, September 4, 1789. He studied pharmacy first in the shop of a brother-in-law at Cognac, and then under Professor Robiquet at Paris, where from Desfontaines and L. C. Richard he acquired a knowledge of botany. In April 1810 he was appointed dispenser in the military marine, and from July 1811 to the end of 1814 he served at Antwerp. In September 1817 he joined the corvette “Uranie,” as pharmaceutical botanist to the circumpolar expedition commanded by De Freycinet (see vol. ix. p. 777). The wreck of the vessel on the Falkland Isles, at the close of the year 1819, deprived him of more than half the botanical collections he had made in various parts of the world. In 1830-33 he visited Chili, Peru, and Brazil, and in 1836- 37 he acted as botanist to “La Bonite” during its circumnavigation of the globe. His theory accounting for the growth of plants by the supposed coalescence of elementary “phytons” involved him, during the latter years of his life, in much controversy with his fellow-botanists, more especially M. de Mirbel. He died January 16, 1854....