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How did scientists who studied the living world in the eighteenth century make a living from their scientific work? As a contribution to this socio-historical enquiry, the author uses the cases of two botanists, Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu (1748-1836) and Michel Adanson (1727-1806). Both belonged to the Parisian naturalist sphere, attended the same institutions and studied the same subject. Yet their social horizons and their life trajectories separated them significantly. Jussieu was an heir, an aristocrat, an annuitant who “occupied himself” with science, and was socially attached to the Parisian upper-middle class. Adanson, on the other hand, began his career without any wealth or qualifications, with the professional status of a clerk, and lived until the age of thirty-eight, spending the summit of his scientific creativity perilously close to the level of the economic dependency.