THE LIVES
OF
CELEBRATED TRAVELLERS.
JOSEPH PITTON DE TOURNEFORT.
Born 1656.—Died 1708.
Tournefort was born at Aix, in Provence, on the
5th of June, 1656. He received the first rudiments
of his education at the Jesuits' College of that city;
where manifestations of his passion for botany, to
the gratification of which he devoted the whole of
his life, appeared at a very early age. As soon as
he beheld plants, says Fontenelle, he felt himself a
botanist. He desired to learn their names; he carefully
observed their differences, and sometimes absented
himself from his class in order to botanize
in the country, preferring nature to the language of
the ancient Romans, which at that time was regarded
as the principal object of education. Like
the majority of those who have distinguished themselves
in any department of science or art, he was
his own master, and in a very short time had made
himself acquainted with the plants found in the environs
of his native city.
For the philosophy then taught in the schools he had but little predilection. Being in search of nature, which was almost wholly banished from the
