He obtained the privilege of having the work published at the royal printing office at the expense of the government, and the total proceeds of the sale of the volumes were given to the author.

This elaborate work at once placed young Lamarck in the front rank of botanists, and now the first and greatest honor of his life came to him.

The young lieutenant, disappointed in a military advancement, won his spurs in the field of science.

A place in botany had become vacant at the Academy of Sciences, and M.de Lamarck having been presented in the second rank (_en seconde ligne_), the ministry, a thing almost unexampled, caused him to be given by the king, in 1779, the preference over M.Descemet, whose name was presented before his, in the first rank, and who since then, and during a long life, never could recover the place which he unjustly lost.[16] "In a word, the poor officer, so neglected since the peace, obtained at one stroke the good fortune, always very rare, and especially so at that time, of being both the recipient of the favor of the Court and of the public."[17] [Illustration: LAMARCK AT THE AGE OF 35 YEARS] The interest and affection felt for him by Buffon were of advantage to him in another way.

Desiring to have his son, whom he had planned to be his successor as Intendant of the Royal Garden, and who had just finished his studies, enjoy the advantage of travel in foreign lands, Buffon proposed to Lamarck to go with him as a guide and friend; and, not wishing him to appear as a mere teacher, he procured for him, in 1781, a commission as Royal Botanist, charged with visiting the foreign botanical gardens and museums, and of placing them in communication with those of Paris.