Augustin Abel Hector Léveillé (13 March 1864, in

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

– 25 November 1918) was a French

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and clergyman. He attended medical school prior to entering into the priesthood. In 1887 he traveled to India as a missionary, being appointed as a professor of natural history at the College of

Pondicherry Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...

. In 1891 he returned to France for health reasons, settling in his hometown of

.JSTOR Global Plants
biography Following a meeting with botanist

Adrien René Franchet Adrien René Franchet (21 April 1834 in Pezou – 15 February 1900 in Paris) was a French botanist, based at the Paris Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. He is noted for his extensive work describing the flora of China and Japan, base ...

in 1900, he agreed to perform studies on the many thousands of plant specimens sent by collectors from the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

. From these shipments Léveillé is credited with describing around 2000 new species, with many of the plants being co-described along with Father Eugène Vaniot (1846–1913). In 1892 he founded the magazine ''Le Monde des Plantes'', serving as its director until his death. During the same year he founded the ''Académie internationale de géographie botanique'' (International Academy of Botanical Geography). His

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

was acquired by Scottish botanist George Forrest, a collector in

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

. Numerous species are named in his honor, as well as the genus ''Leveillea'' (family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

), described by Eugène Vaniot in 1903.

Published works

* ''Les Carex du Japon'', (with Eugène Vaniot), 1901 -

Carex ''Carex'' is a vast genus of more than 2,000 species of grass-like plants in the family Cyperaceae, commonly known as sedges (or seg, in older books). Other members of the family Cyperaceae are also called sedges, however those of genus ''Carex'' ...

of Japan. * ''Les Rhododendrons de la Chine'', 1903 - Rhododendrons of China. * ''Tableau analytique de la flore française'', 1906 - Analytic tableau of French flora. * ''Les Épilobes du Japon'', 1907 -

Epilobium ''Epilobium'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Onagraceae, containing about 197 species. The genus has a worldwide distribution. It is most prevalent in the subarctic, temperate and subantarctic regions, whereas in the subtropics an ...

from Japan. * ''Iconographie du genre epilobium'', 1910 (with Gonzalve de Cordoue) - Iconography of the genus Epilobium.¨ * ''Dictionnaire inventoriel de la flore française'', 1916 - Inventorial dictionary of French flora. * ''Catalogue illustré et alphabetique des plantes du Seu Tchouen /par Hector Léveillé'', 1918 - Illustrated and alphabetized catalog of plants from Seu Tchouen.WorldCat Search
Publications)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leveille, Augustin Abel Hector 1864 births 1918 deaths People from Le Mans 20th-century French botanists 19th-century French Roman Catholic priests French Roman Catholic missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries in India French expatriates in India Missionary botanists 19th-century French botanists