Alexandre Joseph Désiré Bivort (1809–1872) was a Belgian horticulturalist, specialising in pomology. He was particularly influential in systematising the nomenclature of strains of pear.

Life

Bivort was born at Fleurus on 9 March 1809. He was educated at the industrial school in Melle and at the college in Aalst, where he graduated secondary school at the age of fifteen.Émile Rodigas, "À la mémoire d’Alexandre Bivort", ''Bulletins d’arboriculture, de floriculture et de culture potagère'' (1872), p. 275. While working in the family coal business at

Jumet Jumet ( wa, Djumet) is a town of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Charleroi, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It was a municipality of its own before the merger of the municipalities in 1977. Church of Saint-Sulpice ...

, he devoted much of his time to the study of agriculture, eventually becoming a full-time horticulturalist. In 1840 he acquired the seed collection of Jean-Baptiste Van Mons, numbering about 20,000 seeds, and gradually transported it to his own property at

Saint-Remy-Geest Saint-Remy-Geest ( nl, Sint-Remigius-Geest; wa, Djé-Sint-Rmey) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Jodoigne, located in the province of Walloon Brabant, Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien o ...

. In 1854 he became the director of the Société Van Mons. He corresponded with many leading international pomologists, and was the secretary of the editorial committee of the Commission Royale de Pomologie's '' Annales de pomologie belge et étrangère'' (1853–1860), to which he was a substantial contributor. He died in Fleurus on 8 May 1872.

Publications

* ''Album de pomologie'' (4 vols., 1847–1850).Sandra Raphael, ''An Oak Spring Pomona: A Selection of the Rare Books on Fruit in the Oak Spring Garden Library'' (Yale University Press, 1990), pp. 141-143.

Honours and awards

* 23 August 1858: Knight in the

Order of Leopold Order of Leopold may refer to: * Order of Leopold (Austria), founded in 1808 by emperor Francis I of Austria and discontinued in 1918 * Order of Leopold (Belgium), founded in 1832 by king Leopold I of Belgium * Order of Leopold II, founded in Congo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bivort, Alexandre 1809 births 1872 deaths Pomologists 19th-century Belgian botanists People from Hainaut (province)