How did Lamarck begin his scientific career as a botanist?

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck did not begin his career as a scientist; he initially pursued a military career in 1761 after his father’s death. While serving as a soldier in southern France, he developed a personal interest in collecting plants. Following a medical discharge in 1768, he turned his focus toward botany, which became the foundation of his early scientific reputation.1

Lamarck established himself in the Parisian scientific community by proposing a more efficient system for identifying French flora than that of Carolus Linnaeus. This initiative caught the attention of Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon, who supported the publication of Lamarck’s Flore française in 1778. This work utilized innovative dichotomous keys to facilitate plant identification. With Buffon's patronage, Lamarck was elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1779 and eventually secured a formal position as the botanist of the King and keeper of the King’s herbaria.1