Ambroise Marie Francois Joseph Beau-Vois De Palisot, a French naturalist, born in Arras in 1752, died in Paris, Jan. 21, 1820. He sailed for the coast of Guinea in 1786, and was the first naturalist to explore the kingdom of Benin. His health having broken down, he went in 1788 to Santo Domingo, and in 1790 obtained a place in the colonial council. In 1791 he was sent on an unsuccessful mission to Philadelphia for assistance against the revolted negroes of Santo Domingo, and on his return to the colony in June, 1793, he was imprisoned and barely escaped being murdered by them. He reached Philadelphia in great destitution, and supported himself as a teacher of music and languages; but the French charge d'affaires enabled him to make a botanical excursion through some of the United States. Permitted to return to France in 1798, after having been proscribed during the revolution, he became in 1806 a member of the institute, and in 1815 of the council of the university. Among his illustrated works are: Flore d'Oware et de Benin (2 vols., Paris, 1804-'21); Insectes recueillies en Afrique et en Amerique (1805-21)-; and Mus-cologie, ou traite sur les mousses (1822).