Gaston de Saporta (28 July 1823 – 26 January 1895) was a French aristocrat,

palaeobotanist Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeogr ...

and non-fiction writer.

Biography

Early life

(Louis Charles Joseph) Gaston de Saporta born in the Château de Montvert in

Saint-Zacharie Saint-Zacharie (; Provençal dialect, Provençal: ''Sant Jacariá'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Var (département), Var Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region in southeastern Fran ...

Var Var or VAR may refer to: Places * Var (department), a department of France * Var (river), France * Vār, Iran, village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Var, Iran (disambiguation), other places in Iran * Vár, a village in Obreja commune, Ca ...

, on July 28, 1823.GeneaNet
/ref>
/ref> He was a member of the Provençal nobility. His father was Adolphe Charles François Anne de Saporta (1800-1879) and his mother, Irène Boyer de Fonscolombe de La Mole (1799-1879). He grew up in the

Hôtel Boyer de Fonscolombe The Hôtel Boyer de Fonscolombe is a listed hôtel particulier in Aix-en-Provence. It houses the ''Institut de Management Public et Gouvernance Territoriale'' of Aix-Marseille University. Location It is located 21, Rue Gaston de Saporta (formerly ...

, a listed

hôtel particulier An ''hôtel particulier'' () is a grand townhouse, comparable to the Townhouse (Great Britain), British townhouse or mansion. Whereas an ordinary ''maison'' (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side an ...

at 21 Rue Gaston de Saporta in

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...

, where he resided all his life.

Career

As a palaeobotanist, he was a supporter of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

's theory of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

and showed the transformation of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

species in different eras. He corresponded with Darwin. In 1877, Darwin wrote a supportive letter to Saporta which stated that "your idea that dicotyledonous plants were not developed in force until sucking insects had been evolved seems to me a splendid one." He wrote many books about botany from the 1860s to the 1890s. He became a member of 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 ...

. Moreover, he often visited the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

to attend conferences, and paved the way for the inauguration of the Museum of Natural History in Aix-en-Provence. Interested in the aristocracy, he also wrote a book about the family of

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (5 February 1626 – 17 April 1696), also widely known as Madame de Sévigné or Mme de Sévigné, was a French aristocrat, remembered for her letter-writing. Most of her letters, celebrated for ...

(1626-1696).

Personal life

He was married to Valentine de Forbin la Barben. He was widowed in 1850, and got remarried to Émilie de Gabrielli de Gubbio. They had a son, Antoine de Saporta (1855-1914), who became a writer. He died in Aix-en-Provence on January 26, 1895.

Legacy

*The ''Rue Gaston de Saporta'' in Aix-en-Provence is named in his honour.Google Maps
/ref>

Bibliography

*''Sur le rôle des végétaux à feuilles caduques dans les flores tertiaires antérieures au miocène proprement dit et spécialement dans celle du gypse d'Aix'' (1863) *''Notice sur les plantes fossiles des calcaires concrétionnés de Brognon (Côte-d'Or)'' (1866) *''La Flore des tufs quaternaires en Provence'' (1867) *''Caractères de l'ancienne végétation polaire : analyse raisonnée de l'ouvrage de M. Oswald Heer intitulé Flora fossilis Artica'' (1868) *''La Végétation du Globe dans les temps antérieurs à l'homme'' (1868) *''La Paléontologie appliquée à l'étude des races humaines'' (1868) *''Prodrome d'une flore fossile des travertins anciens de Sézanne'' (1868) *''Le Phénomène de la vie, discours prononcé à la séance publique annuelle de l'Académie des sciences, agriculture, arts et belles-lettres d'Aix'' (1870) *''Études sur la végétation du sud-est de la France à l'époque tertiaire : révision de la flore des gypses d'Aix'' (1872) *''Flore fossile du Portugal'' *''Essai sur l'état de la végétation à l'époque des marnes heersiennes de Gelinden'' (with Antoine-Fortuné Marion, 1873) *''Paléontologie française, ou Description des fossiles de la France, commencée par Alcide d'Orbigny et continuée par une réunion de paléontologistes. 2e série : Végétaux. Plantes jurassiques'' (6 volumes, 1873-1884) *''Notice sur les plantes fossiles du niveau des lits à poissons de Cerin'' (1873) *''Examen critique d'une collection de plantes fossiles de Koumi (Eubée)'' (1873) *''Recherches sur les végétaux fossiles de Meximieux'' (with Antoine-Fortuné Marion, 1876) *''Les Anciens climats de l'Europe et le développement de la végétation'' (1878) *''Essai descriptif sur les plantes fossiles des Arkosses de Brives près le Puy-en-Velay'' (1878) *''Révision de la flore heersienne de Gelinden, d'après une collection appartenant au Cte de Looz'' (with Antoine-Fortuné Marion, 1878) *''Le Monde des plantes avant l'apparition de l'homme'' (1879) *''Les Temps quaternaires'' (1881) *''Aperçu géologique du terroir d'Aix-en-Provence'' (1881) *''L'Évolution du règne végétal'' (3 volumes, 1881-1885) *''À propos des algues Jossiles'' (1882) *''La Formation de la houille'' (1882) *''Un essai de synthèse paléoethnique'' (1883) *''Les Organismes problématiques des anciennes mers'' (1884) *''Origine paléontologique des arbres cultivés ou utilisés par l'homme'' (1888) *''Dernières adjonctions à la flore fossile d'Aix-en-Provence, précédées de Notions stratigraphiques et paléontologiques appliquées à l'étude du gisement des plantes fossiles d'Aix-en-Provence'' (1889) *''La Famille de Mme de Sévigné en Provence'' (1889) *''Recherches sur la végétation du niveau Aquinien de Manosque'' (1891) *''Correspondance entre Charles Darwin et Gaston de Saporta, précédée de Histoire de la paléobotanique en France au XIXe siècle par Yvette Conry'' (Paris : Presses universitaires de France, 1972, posthumous).