Charles-François Brisseau de Mirbel (27 March 1776 – 12 September 1854) was a French

botanist Botany, also called plant science (or plant sciences), 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 "bo ...

and politician. He was a founder of the science of plant cytology. A native Parisian, at the age of twenty, he became an assistant-naturalist with the French National Museum of Natural History. While there he began to examine plant tissue under a microscope. In 1802, Mirbel published his treatise ''Traité d'anatomie et de physiologie végétale'' which established his position as a founder of cytology, plant histology and

plant physiology Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Closely related fields include plant morphology (structure of plants), plant ecology (interactions with the environment), phytochemistry (bi ...

in France. He proposed that all plant tissue is modified from

parenchyma Parenchyma () is the bulk of functional substance in an animal organ or structure such as a tumour. In zoology it is the name for the tissue that fills the interior of flatworms. Etymology The term ''parenchyma'' is New Latin from the word π ...

(supporting tissue). His observation, in 1809, that each plant cell is contained in a continuous membrane, remains a central contribution to cytology. In 1803, Mirbel obtained the post of superintendent of the gardens of Napoleon's Château de Malmaison. There he studied and published on structure of plant tissue and the development of plant organs. He also studied and described the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

'' Marchantia'' of liverworts. His 1802 treatise and these publications enabled him, in 1808, to join the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...

and to become the chair of the botany department of the Sorbonne. His combined tissue studies were published in 1815 as ''Eléments de physiologie végétale et de botanique''. With the

Bourbon Restoration Bourbon Restoration may refer to: France under the House of Bourbon: * Bourbon Restoration in France (1814, after the French revolution and Napoleonic era, until 1830; interrupted by the Hundred Days in 1815) Spain under the Spanish Bourbons: * ...

, Mirbel's friend Élie, duc Decazes, then Minister of Interior, offered him the post of Secretary General. But the fall of the government in 1829, marked the end of Mirbel's political career, and he returned to a position with the National Museum of Natural History as head of the '' Jardin des Plantes'' in Paris, and eventually became the Director of Culture (chaire de culture) for the museum. Mirbel was elected a foreign member of the British Royal Society of London in 1837. In 1823 Mirbel married Lizinska Aimée Zoé Rue, a French painter of miniatures. He died in Champerret, France in 1854. The plant

Mirbelia ''Mirbelia'' is a plant genus belonging to the family Fabaceae and is endemic to Australia, occurring in every mainland state except South Australia. Plants in the genus ''Mirbelia'' are prickly, perennial shrubs with simple, sometimes sharply- ...

'' and the orchid ''

Dendrobium mirbelianum ''Dendrobium mirbelianum'', commonly known as the dark-stemmed antler orchid or mangrove orchid, is an epiphytic or lithophytic orchid in the family Orchidaceae. It has cylindrical, dark-coloured pseudobulbs with leathery, dark green leaves ...

'' are named in his honor.

Selected works

* * ''Traité d'anatomie et de physiologie végétale'', 1802 * ''Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière de plantes'', 1802–1806 * ''Exposition de la théorie de l'organisation végétale'', 1809 * ''Éléments de physiologie végétale et de botanique'', 1815

References

* Gillispie, Charles Coulston (ed.) (1970) "Mirbel, Charles Francois Brisseau De (1776–1854)" ''Dictionary of Scientific Biography: Volumes I-XIV'' Charles Scribner's Sons, New York; ::''This article is based in part on material from the French Wikipedia''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brisseau de Mirbel Botanists with author abbreviations 19th-century French botanists University of Paris faculty Members of the French Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the Royal Society 1776 births 1854 deaths