Definition of A. p. de candolle

He was descended from one of the ancient families of the Provence, but was, born in Geneva, as religious persecution had forced his ancestors to leave their native country in the middle of the 16th century.

Though a sickly boy he showed great aptitude for study, and distinguished himself at school by his rapid attainments in classical and general literature, and specially by a faculty for writing elegant verse. He began his scientific studies at the college of Geneva, where the teaching of J. P. E. Vaucher first inspired him with the determination to make botanical science the chief pursuit of his life. In 1796 he moved to Paris. His first productions, Plantarum historia succulentarum (4 vols., 1799) and Astragalogia (1802), brought him to the notice of Georges Cuvier, for whom he acted as deputy at the College de France in 1802, and of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who afterwards entrusted him with the publication of the third edition of the Flore française (1803-1815). The "Principes élémentaires de botanique", printed as the introduction to this work, contained the first exposition of his principles of classification, following a natural method as opposed to the artificial, Linnaean method.