After graduating from Saint Cyr, he served as a second lieutenant in the 36th infantry regiment. In 1886, he had to give up his military career because of the new law prohibiting members of families that had ruled France from serving in the army. He turned to geography, geology and ethnography. A keen traveller, he devoted himself to botany, compiling the largest herbarium in the world.Autograph letter signed Paris, le 10.05.1895: "...je ne peux que regretter pour cette dernière l'absence de l'objet dont vous me parlez dans votre aimable lettre du 2 mai…". 1 p. In-8.