[2] As stated by G. de Mortillet, the date of his birth is variously given. Michaud's _Dictionnaire Biographique_ gives the date April 1; other authors, April 11; others, the correct one, August 1, 1744. (_Lamarck. Par un Groupe de Transformistes, ses Disciples._ _L'Homme_, iv. p. 289, 1887.) [3] "Sur la maison de Viella--les Mortiers-brévise et les Montalembert en Gascogne--et sur le naturaliste Lamarck." Par Hippolyte Masson. (_Revue de Gascogne_, xvii., pp. 141-143, 1876.) [4] _Ibid._, p. 194. [5] A small town in southwestern France, near Lourdes and Pau; it is about eight miles north of Tarbes, in Gascony. [6] _Revue de Gascogne_, pp. 264-269, 1876. [7] The abbé attempts to answer the question as to what place gave origin to the name of Lamarck, and says: "The author of the history of Béarn considered the cradle of the race to have been the freehold of Marca, parish of Gou (Basses-Pyrénées). A branch of the family established in le Magnoac changed its name of Marca to that of La Marque." It was M. d'Ossat who gave rise to this change by addressing his letters to M. de Marca (at the time when he was preceptor of his nephew), sometimes under the name of M. Marca, sometimes _M. la Marqua_, or of _M. de la Marca_, but more often still under that of _M. de la Marque_, "with the object, no doubt, of making him a Frenchman" ("_dans la vue sans doute de le franciser_"). (_Vie du Cardinal d'Ossat_, tome i., p. 319.) "To recall their origin, the branch of Magnoac to-day write their name _Marque-Marca_. If the Marca of the historian belongs to Béarn, the Lamarque of the naturalist, an orthographic name in principle, proceeds from Bigorre, actually chosen (_désignée_) by _Lamarcq, Pontacq, or Lamarque près Béarn_. That the _Lamarque_ of the botanist of the royal cabinet distinguished himself from all the _Lamarques_ of Béarn or of Bigorre, which it bears (_qu'il gise_) to this day in the Hautes-Pyrénées, Canton d'Ossun, we have many proofs: Aast at some distance, Bourcat and Couet all near l'Abbaye Laïque, etc. The village so determined is called in turn _Marca_, _La Marque_, _Lamarque_; names predestined to several destinations; judge then to the mercy of a botanist, _Lamarck_, _La Marck_, _Delamarque_, _De Lamarck_, who shall determine their number? As to the last, I only explain it by a fantasy of the man who would de-Bigorrize himself in order to Germanize himself in the hope, apparently, that at the first utterance of the name people would believe that he was from the _outre Rhin_ rather than from the borders of Gave or of Adour. Consequently a hundred times more learned and a hundred times more worthy of a professorship in the Museum, where Monet would seem (_entrevait_) much less than Lamarque." It may be added that Béarn was an ancient province of southern France nearly corresponding to the present Department of Basses-Pyrénées. Its capital was Pau.