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 prevailing systems, he considered himself fortunate in
discovering accidentally among his father’s books, the works of
Descartes, which appeared to contain the philosophy which he sought. He
was not, however, permitted to enjoy this gratification openly; but his
ardour and enthusiasm were apparently exactly proportioned to the
mystery by which it was attended.
Tournefort, being designed by his father for the church, of course
included theology in his studies, and even went so far as to enter into
a seminary. But his natural inclinations prevailed. The fathers and the
doctors of the Sorbonne were less attractive than the plants of the
field; and when he should have been engaged with
Councils, classics, fathers, wits,
he stole away to the garden of an apothecary of Aix, who delighted in
the same studies, and there pursued in secret the course he had chosen
for himself. But the treasures of the apothecary’s garden were soon
exhausted. It therefore soon became necessary to discover a wider field;
and as botanists, like most other mortals, consider stolen joys the
sweetest, he occasionally penetrated into forbidden grounds, and exposed
himself to the suspicion of having less exalted views than those by
which he was really actuated. In fact, being one day discovered in a
garden by some peasants, he was taken for a robber, and narrowly escaped
the fate of St. Stephen.
There is something in the circumstances under which the science of
botany is studied, which has a tendency to confer upon it a kind of
poetical charm. It is not a sedentary pursuit. It leads the student
abroad among the most magnificent and beautiful scenery of the earth, in
all seasons, but more particularly during those in which external nature
is loveliest. That botany should be pursued with passion is, therefore,
not at all surprising; but it is difficult to understand how the
imagination should become enamoured of anatomy, which, instead of
generating cheerful and enlivening images, dwells wholly upon decay and
dissolution. Tournefort, however, associated this gloomy science with
botany, and is said to have equally delighted in both.
The death of his father, which took place in 1677, delivered him from
theology and the church. He was now entire master of his time; and, in
order the more completely to gratify his inclinations, made a tour
through the mountains of Dauphiny and Savoy, where he collected a great
number of fine plants, which formed the nucleus of his herbarium. This
journey increasing instead of gratifying his curiosity, and probably
adding fresh vigour to his naturally robust frame, while it at the same
time enhanced his gayety, was merely the prelude to others more
adventurous and extensive. In 1769 he set out from Aix for Montpellier,
where, besides improving himself in his anatomical and medical studies,
he enjoyed all the advantages which the rich botanical garden created by
Henry IV. could afford an enlightened botanist.
At Montpellier Tournefort remained nearly two years. He then undertook
an excursion into Spain, where he made large accessions to his herbary;
and after wandering for some time among the mountains of Catalonia,
accompanied by several physicians and young medical students, he
directed his footsteps towards the Pyrenees. Fontenelle, in speaking of
this excursion of Tournefort, seems to be principally astonished at the
intrepidity with which our traveller encountered, not the dangers, but
the cookery of the Pyrenees, which, to the Rouen epicurean, appeared
more terrible than precipices or robbers. He was quite aware, says he,
that in these vast solitudes he should find no subsistence, except such
as the most austere anchorets might have partaken, and that the wretched
inhabitants from whom even this was to be obtained were not more
numerous than the robbers who might deprive him of it. In fact, he was
more than once attacked and plundered by Spanish outlaws; and the
contrivance by which he succeeded on such occasions in concealing a
small quantity of money is sufficiently ingenious. He thrust a number of
reals into the coarse black bread which he carried about with him as his
only food, and this the robbers considered so utterly worthless that,
although by no means fastidious, they invariably relinquished it to the
traveller with extreme contempt.
Tournefort, having thus overreached the dull-headed banditti of Spain,
roamed about at leisure through the wild regions of the Pyrenees,
climbing the most abrupt and apparently inaccessible pinnacles. New
plants, however, were found at almost every step, and the pleasure
derived from this circumstance, which none but a discoverer can
conceive, amply compensated him for the fatigues and dangers he
underwent. One day during this tour he narrowly escaped with his life: a
miserable house, in which he had taken shelter, fell down upon him, and
for two hours he lay buried under the ruins, but was at length dug out
by the peasantry.
Towards the end of the year 1681 he returned through Montpellier to Aix,
where he classed and arranged all the plants which he had collected in
Provence, Languedoc, Dauphiny, Catalonia, the Alps, and the Pyrenees;
and the pleasure afforded him by the sight of his collection was an
ample reward for all the fatigue and danger which he experienced in
procuring it.
Tournefort’s reputation now began to diffuse itself. M. Fagon, principal
physician to the queen, a man who ardently desired to advance the
interests of botany, learning his extraordinary merit, invited him to
Paris in 1683; and on his arrival obtained for him the place of
botanical professor in the Jardin des Plantes. This appointment,
however, by no means restrained his passion for travelling; for,
although botany was perhaps his principal object, the delight arising
from visiting new scenes was strongly associated with the weaker and
more tranquil gratification afforded by science. He therefore once more
undertook a journey into Spain, and while in Andalusia, where the
palm-tree abounds, endeavoured to penetrate the mysterious loves of the
male and female of this celebrated tree, but his researches were
unsuccessful. He proceeded next into Portugal, from whence, when the
object of his journey had been accomplished, he returned to France.
Shortly after this he visited England and Holland, in the latter of
which countries he was invited, and even tempted by the offer of a more
liberal salary than he enjoyed at home, to take up his residence as
botanical professor. The offer was flattering, but Tournefort, persuaded
that no worldly advantages are an equivalent for a permanent exile from
home, wisely declined it. His own country was not ungrateful. In 1691 he
was made a member of the Academy of Sciences; and his reputation, which
was now rapidly gaining ground, paved the way to other more solid
advantages.
Tournefort, notwithstanding his enthusiasm for science and thirst of
reputation, was not in haste to appear before the public as an author.
However, in 1694, having meditated profoundly and long upon the subject,
he ventured to put forth his “Elemens de Botanique, ou Méthode pour
connoître les Plantes,” which, though attacked by Ray and others, was
highly esteemed by the greater number of naturalists. He now took his
degree of M.D., and, shortly afterward, in 1698, published his history
of the plants growing in the environs of Paris, with an account of their
uses in medicine.
Such were his employments until the year 1700, when, to adopt the
language of the times, he was commanded by the king to undertake a
journey into Greece, Asia, and Africa, not merely for the purpose of
making scientific researches, but in order to study upon the spot the
manners, customs, and opinions of the inhabitants. This long and
somewhat hazardous journey he hesitated to commence alone; for, as he
justly observes, there is nothing so melancholy as to be ill in a
foreign country, surrounded by entire strangers, ignorant of medicine
yet daring to practise. However, he very quickly found two
companions—the one a physician, the other a painter—and having made
every necessary preparation, embarked at Marseilles on the 23d of April,
1700.
On the 3d of May they arrived at Canea, the principal port of Candia;
and Tournefort, to whom the passage had appeared exceedingly tedious,
experienced peculiar pleasure in commencing his eastern travels with the
ancient kingdom of Minos. He found the environs of the city admirable,
plains covered with forests of olive, fields richly cultivated, gardens,
vineyards, and streams fringed with myrtle and rose laurel. One small
inconvenience was felt, however, in traversing these lovely scenes. The
Turks, as usual, had laid out their cemeteries along the highway, and
not having sunk the graves to a sufficient depth, the bodies, powerfully
acted on by the sun, exhaled an extremely fetid odour, which the wind
wafted over the country, engendering noisome diseases. To add to the
chagrin occasioned by this circumstance, they found, notwithstanding the
assertions of Galen and Pliny, which had in fact tempted them into the
island, that the plants of Crete were difficult to be met with even in
Crete itself, though in the sequel the plants of the “White Mountains”
amply made up for their first disappointments.
Tournefort, though a scholar, was by no means a classical enthusiast,
and therefore his descriptions of celebrated places may generally be
depended upon. If any thing, he was too much disposed, from a not
uncommon species of affectation, to disparage the places on which the
ancients have thrown the noblest rays of glory. From this disposition he
caricatures the Cretan Ida, which he denominates “a great ugly ass’s
back,” where you find neither landscape, nor fountain, nor stream, nor
agreeable solitude; but, instead of all these, prodigious piles of
barren rocks, surrounded by all the circumstances of desolation. From
the summit he enjoyed, indeed, an extensive prospect, but he thought it
much too dearly purchased by the fatigue of climbing so difficult a
mountain; and, in order to put himself in good-humour with the scene,
set down in the lee of a rock and made a good bowl of sherbet.
After visiting Retimo, Candia, and the other principal cities of the
island, they made an excursion to the famous labyrinth which is hewn in
the bowels of a hill near the ancient Gortyna. This singular excavation
is entered by a rustic cavern, and conducts you by numerous windings
entirely through the mountain. Tournefort regards it as a natural cavern
enlarged by human industry. Wherever he met with any Greeks during his
journeys in this island, their manners were distinguished by the most
remarkable simplicity, men, women, and children crowding round the
strangers, admiring their dresses, or demanding medicines.
Having satisfied his scientific curiosity respecting Candia, he
proceeded to visit the various islands of the Archipelago, which he
examined with attention. On almost every rock on which he landed some
additions were made to his botanical or antiquarian treasures, and with
this mass of materials continually accumulating, he pushed on to
Constantinople. Being desirous of comprehending the barbarous but
complex machine of the Ottoman polity, he made a considerable stay in
this city, from whence, when he conceived his object to have been
accomplished, he continued his travels towards the east, and following
the footsteps of the Argonauts, whom the ancients, he tells us, regarded
as their most famous travellers, proceeded along the southern shores of
the Black Sea towards Colchos. Our traveller performed this part of his
route in the suite of the Pasha of Erzeroom. The whole party embarked in
feluccas, the pasha with his harem in one vessel, and the remainder of
his people, together with Tournefort and his attendants, distributed in
seven others. During the voyage they frequently landed on the coast, for
the purpose of passing the night more agreeably than could have been
done on board. Tents were pitched, and those of the ladies surrounded by
ditches, and guarded by black eunuchs, whose ugly visages and fearfully
rolling eyes struck a panic into the soul of our traveller, who seems to
have regarded them as so many devils commissioned to keep watch over the
houries of paradise.
Indeed, Tournefort, if we may take him upon his word, was exceedingly
well calculated by nature for travelling securely in the suite of a
pasha accompanied by his harem; for when he was cautioned by the great
man’s lieutenant against approaching the female quarters too nearly, or
even ascending any eminence in the vicinity, from whence their tents
might be viewed, he remarked, with apparent sincerity, that he was too
much in love with plants to think of the ladies! This was a fortunate
circumstance. Plants are everywhere to be procured, for even in the East
it has never been thought necessary to place a guard of black eunuchs
over hellebore or nightshade; but had the smile of female lips, or the
sunshine of female eyes, been necessary to his happiness, he must have
languished in hopelessness, at least while in the train of a pasha.
Notwithstanding the nature of the government and the state of manners in
the country through which he passed, he encountered but few
difficulties, and no real dangers. He settled the geographical position
of cities, he admired the landscapes, he described the plants; but being
fully persuaded that the better part of valour is discretion, he engaged
in no adventures, and therefore the current of his life ran on as
smoothly on the shores of the Black Sea as it could have done on the
banks of the Seine or Rhone.
On arriving at Trebizond our traveller continued his route by land; and
here he began to experience something of danger. There was no proceeding
singly through the country. Every road was beset with robbers; and, in
order to protect their persons and property, men congregated together
into caravans, small moving polities, the members of which were
temporarily bound to each other by a sense of common danger. Every man
went armed, as in an enemy’s country. On this occasion Tournefort
remarks, that there would be less danger in traversing the wild parts of
America than such countries as Turkey: for that the savages, or those
independent tribes whom we persist in regarding as such, never fell upon
any but their enemies; while in civilized and semi-barbarous countries,
robbers make no distinctions of this kind, being the declared enemies of
every person possessing property. And as for the cannibal propensities
of the former, he does not imagine that they greatly alter the case; for
when a poor wretch has been murdered, he does not perceive how it can
make any great difference to him whether he be eaten by men, or left
naked in the fields to be devoured by birds or wild beasts.
However, the caravan in which Tournefort travelled being commanded by
the pasha in person, the robbers fled from it with as much celerity as
they followed others, for every one who was caught had his head
instantly struck off without the least delay or ceremony. This salutary
rigour, which those who tasted of the tranquillity it produced were very
far from blaming, enabled the whole party to move on perfectly at their
ease; and as great men accompanied by their harems seldom move with any
great celerity, our Franks enjoyed ample leisure for observing the face
of the country, and collecting all such curious plants as nature had
sown in the vicinity of their route. Tournefort greatly admired the
spectacle presented by the caravan when in motion. Horses, camels,
mules, some laden with merchandise, others bestrode by the rude warriors
or merchants of the East, others bearing a species of cages said to
contain women, but which, says our traveller, with evident chagrin,
might as well have contained monkeys as reasonable creatures.
In this style they proceeded to Erzeroom, where they arrived on the 15th
of June. Winter had not yet relinquished his dominion over the land,
for, notwithstanding that the sun was exceedingly hot during the greater
part of the day, the hills in the neighbourhood were covered with snow,
large showers of which had recently fallen. The cold, as might be
expected, is very rigorous here during the winter months, so that
several persons have been known to have lost their hands and feet from
the effects of it; and although coal might probably be easily obtained,
the inhabitants suffer the more severely, inasmuch as wood, the only
fuel used, is extremely scarce and dear. These inconveniences are
equally felt by natives and foreigners; but our traveller encountered
another misfortune, which, in all probability, was confined to himself
and his companions. This affliction, which he laments like a hero, was
caused by the absence of good wines and brandies, a deprivation which
appears to have weighed far more heavily on his heart than the absence
of houries.
From this city he made several excursions into the mountains of Armenia,
which generally continue to be covered with snow until August; and
having discovered a monastery, the monks of which possessed some
excellent wine, his spirits revived, and he began to view the country
with a less gloomy eye. Near this city are the sources of the Euphrates,
springs remarkable for their extreme coldness, and, to be rendered fit
for drinking, requiring perhaps a mixture of that nectar which our
traveller obtained from the monks of Erzeroom. To add to this enjoyment,
some very fine trouts were caught in the stream of the Euphrates, and
being cooked immediately upon the spot, and eaten with a good appetite,
were found to be particularly excellent. However, all these pleasures
were not purchased without some expense of fear, for they were now in
the country of the Koords and Yezeedis, who, roaming about the plains in
dauntless independence, regardless of pashas and eager for plunder,
would have been but too happy to have lightened the burdens of the Frank
adventurers.
From Erzeroom, the environs of which afford a rich treasure to the
botanist, they proceeded with a caravan for Teflis, the capital of
Georgia. The country upon which they now entered was flat and well
cultivated, artificial irrigation being required, however, to maintain
fertility, without which the corn would be roasted upon the stock. In
the islands of the Archipelago, on the other hand, where the heats, he
observes, are sufficient to calcine the earth, and where it rains only
in winter, the corn is the finest in the world. This renders it clear
that all kinds of soil do not possess the same nourishing juice. The
soil of the Archipelago, like the camel, imbibes sufficient water during
the winter to serve it for a long time to come; but that of Armenia
requires to be constantly refreshed by showers or by irrigation.
On his arrival in Georgia, we find our worthy traveller, who, during his
sojourning in the camp of the Turkish pasha, preferred plants to pretty
women, suddenly adopting a different creed, and, in order to enjoy the
sight of a fair face, spreading out a quantity of toys upon the grass,
the reputation of which it was hoped would quickly attract the ladies to
the spot. In this expectation he was not disappointed. The young women
from all the neighbourhood gathered round the merchandise; but, although
they were in possession of robust health and good forms, their beauty
fell far short of his anticipations. This is not surprising. The
imagination invariably out-runs reality; and, moreover, the travellers
who confer or take away a reputation for beauty, besides being naturally
perhaps incorrect judges, are frequently influenced by considerations
which are far from appearing on the face of their narrative.
Having made some short stay at Teflis, he proceeded on an excursion to
Mount Ararat, famous throughout all the East as the spot on which the
ark rested after the flood; after which he once more directed his
footsteps towards the west, returned to Erzeroom, and thence proceeded
by way of Tocat and Angora to Smyrna. From this city, after visiting
Ephesus, Scalanouva, and Samos, he sailed for Marseilles, where he
arrived on the 3d of June, 1702.
It was originally intended that our traveller should have included a
large portion of Africa within the limits of his tour, but the plague
raging at that period in Egypt deterred him from proceeding into that
country. However, he was already, if we may believe M. Fontenelle,
loaded with the spoils of the East, and could afford to relinquish Egypt
to some future adventurer, for whom the plague might have fewer terrors.
The number of plants which he discovered was certainly very
considerable, amounting to not less than 1356 species, of which the far
greater number naturally arranged themselves under the 673 genera which
he had previously established, while for the remainder he created 25 new
genera, but no new class. The rest of Tournefort’s life was spent in
preparing the account of his travels for the press, but he did not live
to see their publication. A blow in the breast, which he accidentally
received, reduced him to a languishing and weak condition, and hastened
his death, which took place on the 28th of December, 1708. His travels,
printed at the Louvre, appeared shortly afterward in two volumes quarto,
and have always maintained a considerable reputation.
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