By November, 1811, De Candolle had nearly completed his botanical tours, and he then considered that he was settled at Montpellier for a long time, and that his work would be more that of a teacher than investigator. He found that travelling and collecting had enlarged his mind, and he never regretted the six years of wandering about. About this time the young professor commenced a great work on the statistics of French vegetation. It did not deal with descriptions of species, or of the special localities where they could be found; but, first, with the general distribution of wild plants in France, and then with the relation of the plants of France to the different wants of mankind. This last part was eminently practical, and it dealt with food plants, medicinal plants, dye plants, and those which are used for clothing. It was a prodigious attempt, and it never came to a conclusion; only fragments of it were in his possession fourteen years afterwards, and he attributed much of the difficulty thrown in his way, to the alterations which occurred in the boundaries of France after the fall of Napoleon. Moreover, he had to complete his description of the plants of France, and that was not done until 1815. De Candolle was always fond of society, and, after his labours of the day, was glad to go into or receive company. Being a Protestant, and a man of mark in his native town, he was well received by most of the families of Montpellier, and his wife also. Society consisted of good Protestant families of old, so-called nobles, and some who thought themselves nobles. It was split up like the society of most small towns, into cliques, but De Candolle escaped, for a long time, any discomforts or social antagonisms. They came at last, however. De Candolle, like many active-minded men, was not popular with the officials who had “places” in their gift. He was intrigued against, and lost the rectorship of the University, but he had the pleasure of exposing the intrigue in 1813.