Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 34.djvu/715

 Palmipedes—is precisely that of Cuvier which is taught in elementary books. Other correspondences of classification with the classifications of Linnæus and Cuvier will be found in the following: table:

The main classification of birds has thus not been materially changed since 1555. The portrait of a wren is a specimen of the ordinary illustrations in "The Birds" (Fig. 4).

Belon composed a treatise on agriculture, in which was included a list of exotic plants which it would be desirable to acclimate in France, and suggested the foundation of an establishment for that purpose. Something of the kind was carried out under Belon's direction by René de Bellay on his estate of Touvoy, near Mans.

Besides the works already described, Belon published a history of conifers and a treatise on the funeral monuments and sepultural usages of the ancients and the substances used by them for the preservation of bodies. According to Renouard, he translated the treatise of Dioscorides into French. He also made a version of Theophrastus's "History of Plants," which has been lost. The magnitude of his works indicates that he had an enormous capacity for labor. His writings on anatomy, botany, agriculture, and medicine, as measured by M. Crié, display a rare critical faculty, and nearly all his observations overreach the horizon of his epoch.

A statue of the great naturalist was unveiled at Mans on the 9th of October, 1887, with an address by M. Crié. The portrait we publish is a copy of the engraving that was prefixed to the "Singularities," and represents Belon in his doctor's cap.