first account of any value of the development of the pollen; as also a description of the structure of the pollen-grain, the confirmation of G. B. Amici’s (1823) discovery of the pollen-tube, the confirmation of R. Brown’s views as to the structure of the unimpregnated ovule (with the introduction of the term “sac embryonnaire”); and in that it shows how nearly Brongniart anticipated Amici’s subsequent (1846) discovery of the entrance of the pollen-tube into the micropyle, fertilizing the female cell which then develops into the embryo. Of his anatomical works, those of the greatest value are probably the “Recherches sur la structure et les fonctions des feuilles” (Ann. Sci. Nat. xxi., 1830), and the “Nouvelles Recherches sur l'Épiderme” (Ann. Sci. Nat. i., 1834), in which, among other important observations, the discovery of the cuticle is recorded; and, further, the “Recherches sur l’organisation des tiges des Cycadées” (Ann. Sci. Nat. xvi., 1829), giving the results of the first investigation of the anatomy of those plants. His systematic work is represented by a large number of papers and monographs, many of which relate to the flora of New Caledonia; and by his Énumération des genres de plantes cultivées au Musée d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris (1843), which is an interesting landmark in the history of classification in that it forms the starting-point of the system, modified successively by A. Braun, A. W. Eichler and A. Engler, which is now adopted in Germany. In addition to his scientific and professorial labours, Brongniart held various important official posts in connexion with the department of education, and interested himself greatly in agricultural and horticultural matters. With J. V. Audouin and J. B. A. Dumas, his future brothers-in-law, he established the Annales des Sciences Naturelles in 1824; he also founded the Société Botanique de France in 1854, and was its first president.
For accounts of his life and work see Bull. de la Soc. Géol. de France, 1876, and La Nature, 1876; the Bulletin de la Soc. Bot. de France for 1876, vol. xxiii., contains a list of his works and the orations pronounced at his funeral. (S. H. V.*)
BRONGNIART, ALEXANDRE (1770–1847), French mineralogist and geologist, son of the eminent architect who designed the Bourse and other public buildings of Paris, was born in that city on the 5th of February 1770. At an early age he studied chemistry, under Lavoisier, and after passing through the École des Mines he took honours at the École de Médecine; subsequently he joined the army of the Pyrenees as pharmacien; but having committed some slight political offence, he was thrown into prison and detained there for some time. Soon after his release he was appointed professor of natural history in the Collège des Quatre Nations. In 1800 he was made director of the Sèvres porcelain factory, a post which he retained to his death, and in which he achieved his greatest work. In his hands Sèvres became the leading porcelain factory in Europe, and the researches of an able band of assistants enabled him to lay the foundations of ceramic chemistry. In addition to his work at Sèvres, quite enough to engross the entire energy of any ordinary man, he continued his more purely scientific work. He succeeded Haüy as professor of mineralogy in the Museum of Natural History; but he did not confine himself to mineralogy, for it is to him that we owe the division of Reptiles into the four orders of Saurians, Batrachians, Chelonians and Ophidians. Fossil as well as living animals engaged his attention, and in his studies of the strata around Paris he was instrumental in establishing the Tertiary formations. In 1816 he was elected to the Academy; and in the following year he visited the Alps of Switzerland and Italy, and afterwards Sweden and Norway. The result of his observations was published from time to time in the Journal des Mines and other scientific journals. Wide as was the range of his interests his most famous work was accomplished at Sèvres, and his most enduring monument is his classic Traité des arts céramiques (1844). He died in Paris on the 7th of October 1847.
His other principal works are:—Traité élémentaire de minéralogie, avec des applications aux arts (2 vols., Paris, 1807); Histoire naturelle des crustacés fossiles (Paris, 1822); Classification et caractères minéralogiques des roches homogènes et hétérogènes (Paris, 1827); the Tableau des terrains qui composent l’écorce du globe, ou Essai sur la structure de la partie connue de la terre (Paris, 1829); and the Traité des arts céramiques (1844). Brongniart was also the coadjutor of Cuvier in the admirable Essai sur la géographie minéralogique des environs de Paris (Paris, 1811); originally published in Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. (Paris, xi. 1808).
BRONN, HEINRICH GEORG (1800–1862), German geologist, was born on the 3rd of March 1800 at Ziegelhausen near Heidelberg. Studying at the university at Heidelberg he took his doctor’s degree in the faculty of medicine in 1821, and in the following year was appointed professor of natural history. He now devoted himself to palaeontological studies, and to fieldwork in various parts of Germany, Italy and France. From its commencement in 1830 to 1862 he assisted in editing the Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, &c., continued as Neues Jahrbuch. His principal work, Lethaea Geognostica (2 vols., Stuttgart, 1834–1838; 3rd ed. with F. Römer, 3 vols., 1851–1856), has been regarded as one of the foundations of German stratigraphical geology. His Handbuch einer Geschichte der Natur, of which the first part was issued in 1841, gave a general account of the physical history of the earth, while the second part dealt with the life-history, species being regarded as direct acts of creation. The third part included his famous Index Palaeontologicus, and was issued in 3 vols., 1848–1849, with the assistance of H. von Meyer and H. R. Göppert. This record of fossils has proved of inestimable value to all palaeontologists. An important work on recent and fossil zoology, Die Klassen und Ordnungen des Thier-Reichs, was commenced by Bronn. He wrote the volumes dealing with Amorphozoa, Actinozoa, and Malacozoa, published 1859–1862; the work was continued by other naturalists. In 1861 Bronn was awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological Society of London. He died at Heidelberg on the 5th of July 1862.
BRONSART VON SCHELLENDORF, PAUL (1832–1891), Prussian general, was born at Danzig in 1832. He entered the Prussian Guards in 1849, and was appointed to the general staff in 1861 as a captain; after three years of staff service he returned to regimental duty, but was soon reappointed to the staff, and lectured at the war academy, becoming major in 1865 and lieut.-colonel in 1869. During the war of 1870 he was chief of a section on the Great General Staff, and conducted the preliminary negotiations for the surrender of the French at Sedan. After the war Bronsart was made a colonel and chief of staff of the Guard army corps, becoming major-general in 1876 and lieut.-general (with a division command) in 1881. Two years later he became war minister, and during his tenure of the post (1883–1889) many important reforms were carried out in the Prussian army, in particular the introduction of the magazine rifle. He was appointed in 1889 to command the I. army corps at Königsberg. He died on the 23rd of June 1891 at his estate near Braunsberg. Bronsart’s military writings include two works of great importance—Ein Rückblick auf die taktischen Ruckblicke (2nd ed., Berlin, 1870), a pamphlet written in reply to Captain May’s Tactical Retrospect of 1866; and Der Dienst des Generalstabes (1st ed., Berlin, 1876; 3rd ed. revised by General Meckel, 1893; new ed. by the author’s son, Major Bronsart von Schellendorf, Berlin, 1904), a comprehensive treatise on the duties of the general staff. The third edition of this work was soon after its publication translated into English and issued officially to the British army as The Duties of the General Staff. Major Bronsart’s new edition of 1904 was reissued in English by the General Staff, under the same title, in 1905.
BRONTË, CHARLOTTE (1816–1855), EMILY (1818–1848), and ANNE (1820–1849), English novelists, were three of the six children of Patrick Brontë, a clergyman of the Church of England, who for the last forty-one years of his life was perpetual incumbent of the parish of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Patrick Brontë was born at Emsdale, Co. Down, Ireland, on the 17th of March 1777. His parents were of the peasant class, their original name of Brunty apparently having been changed by their son on his entry at St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1802. In the intervening years he had been successively a weaver and schoolmaster in his native country. From Cambridge
