Alire Raffeneau Delile (23 January 1778, in
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...
– 5 July 1850, in
Montpellier) was a French
botanist.
Biography
Delile studied botany with Jean Lemonnier, and was in the
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
medical school in 1796.
Egypt
Delile participated in
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
's Egypt Campaign where he described
Lotus and
Papyrus
Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...
. Director of the
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
botanical garden, he wrote the
botanical
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 ...
sections of ''Travel in Lower and Upper Egypt'' by
Dominique Vivant
Dominique Vivant, Baron Denon (4 January 1747 – 27 April 1825) was a French artist, writer, diplomat, author, and archaeologist. Denon was a diplomat for France under Louis XV and Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 ...
.
He made a cast of the
Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Ancien ...
which allowed the reproduction of its
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Demotic
Demotic may refer to:
* Demotic Greek, the modern vernacular form of the Greek language
* Demotic (Egyptian), an ancient Egyptian script and version of the language
* Chữ Nôm, the demotic script for writing Vietnamese
See also
*
* Demos (disa ...
inscriptions in his ''Description de l'Égypte''.
United States
In 1802, Delile was appointed French vice consul at
Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States.
With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is t ...
, and also asked to form an herbarium of all American plants that could be naturalized in France. He sent to Paris several cases of seeds and grains, and discovered some new graminea and presented them to
Palisot de Beauvois
Ambroise Marie François Joseph Palisot, Baron de Beauvois (27 July 1752, in Arras – 21 January 1820, in Paris) was a French naturalist and zoologist.
Palisot collected insects in Oware, Benin, Saint Domingue, and the United States, from 17 ...
, who described them in his ''Agrostographie''. Raffeneau made extensive explorations through the neighboring states, and, resigning in 1805, began the study of
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
in New York. During an epidemic of
scarlet fever he was active in visiting the tenements of the poor, and in 1807 he obtained the degree of
M.D.
Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. ...
Return to France
He returned to France, and graduated as doctor in medicine from the
University of Paris
, image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of Arms
, latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis
, motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin)
, mottoeng = Here and a ...
in 1809.
In 1819, he was appointed professor of
natural history at the
University of Montpellier
The University of Montpellier (french: Université de Montpellier) is a public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the oldest universities in the wor ...
, a post he retained until his death.
In 1832, he was named director of the botanical garden in
Montpellier. He reports planting two
Maclura
''Maclura'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mulberry family, Moraceae. It includes the inedible Osage orange, which is used as mosquito repellent and grown throughout the United States as a hedging plant. It is dioecious, with male and fe ...
saplings which can still be found there, and he added many species to its
herbarium.
He named some 438 species.
[ He specialized in pteridophytes, ]mycology
Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans, including as a source for tinder, traditional medicine, food, and entheogen ...
, bryophyte
The Bryophyta s.l. are a proposed taxonomic division containing three groups of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Bryophyta s.s. consists of the mosses only. They are characteristically limited in s ...
s and spermatophyte
A spermatophyte (; ), also known as phanerogam (taxon Phanerogamae) or phaenogam (taxon Phaenogamae), is any plant that produces seeds, hence the alternative name seed plant. Spermatophytes are a subset of the embryophytes or land plants. They inc ...
s.
In 1853, botanist Godr. published '' Raffenaldia'', a genus of flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
s from Algeria and Morocco, belonging to the family Brassicaceae
Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The leav ...
. It was named in Alire Raffeneau Delile's honour.
Works
His works include (besides those already cited):
*''Sur les effets d'un poison de Java appelé l'upas tieuté, et sur les differentes espèces de strychnos'' (Paris, 1809)
*''Mémoire sur quelques espèces de graminées propres à la Caroline du Nord'' (Versailles, 1815)
*''Centurie des plantes de l'Amérique du Nord'' (Montpellier, 1820)
*''Flore d'Égypte'' (5 vols., Paris, 1824)
*''Centurie des plantes d'Afrique'' (Paris, 1827)
*''De la culture de la patate douce, du crambe maritima et de l'oxalis crenata'' (Montpellier, 1836)
References
* French Wikipedia—Alire Raffeneau-Delile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delile, Alire Raffeneau
French taxonomists
1778 births
1850 deaths
Commission des Sciences et des Arts members
19th-century French diplomats
19th-century French physicians
19th-century French botanists
People from Versailles