Edmund Davall (24 November 1762 in
London – 26 September 1798 in
Orbe) was a
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
-English botanist.
[London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812. Baptism: 3 Dec 1762 - St Lawrence Jewry, London, England. Ancestry.com.]
Life
He was born in England. His parents were Edmund Davall (1737-1784) and Charlotte Thomasset (1728-1788) both of Swiss origin.. He returned with her to Switzerland on the death of his father in 1788, and took up residence at
Orbe,
Canton de Vaud.
Upon his arrival in Orbe, Edmund created a
botanical garden, which he took care of personally. In 1787, he discovered different plants with Albrecht von Haller (1758-1823), which is classified in the nomenclature of Jean Louis Antoine Reynier (1762-1824). It is his neighbor
Charles Victor de Bonstetten
Charles Victor de Bonstetten (german: Karl Viktor von Bonstetten; 3 September 17453 February 1832) was a Swiss liberal writer.
Life
Charles Victor was born at Bern in Switzerland to one of its great patrician families on 3 September 1745. He be ...
(1745-1832), the last bailiff of
Nyon and member of the
Groupe de Coppet , who encouraged him to get in touch with Jakob Samuel Wyttenbach (1748-1830), pastor and naturalist. He is also related to
Jean Senebier (1742-1809), pastor, botanist and librarian of
Geneva , La Chenal and the great naturalist
Horace Benedict de Saussure
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his '' ...
(1740-1799), who came to visit him in Orbe. Saussure cites Davall in his ''Travels in the Alps'' published in
Neuchâtel
, neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier
, twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (France), ...
in 1796.
Davall became interested in botany, making the acquaintance of
Edward Forster and of
James Edward Smith, and becoming one of the original fellows of the
Linnean Society. He died on 26 Sept. 1798, leaving an unfinished work on the Swiss Flora, and his name was perpetuated in the genus of ferns ''
Davallia
'' Davallia'' (deersfoot fern, hare's foot fern, shinobu fern, rabbit foot fern, ball fern) is a genus of about 40 species of fern. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I), it is the only genus in the family Davalli ...
'' by his correspondent Smith.
Family
In November 1789 Davall married a Swiss woman named De Cottens, by whom he had a daughter, who died in infancy, and a son,
Edmond
Edmond is a given name related to Edmund. Persons named Edmond include:
* Edmond Canaple (1797–1876), French politician
* Edmond Chehade (born 1993), Lebanese footballer
* Edmond Conn (1914–1998), American farmer, businessman, and politician
...
(born 25 March 1793), a botanist and politician.
Sources
* Richie Krishna Fergus, ''Edmund Davall'', 2012,
Notes
;Attribution
1762 births
1798 deaths
Scientists from London
People from Orbe
18th-century British botanists
18th-century Swiss botanists
British emigrants to Switzerland
{{Switzerland-botanist-stub