Jean Baptiste Antoine Guillemin (20 January 1796 in
Pouilly-sur-Saône
Pouilly-sur-Saône (, literally ''Pouilly on Saône'') is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Côte-d'Or department
The following is a list of the 698 communes of the Côte-d'Or ...
– 15 January 1842 in
Montpellier
Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...
) 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 ...
.
He studied at the municipal college in Seurre, where he was considered one of the most distinguished pupils. Upon leaving school he was placed with a lawyer. He worked there for eighteen months, but his interest in chemistry and desire to obtain a commission as a military pharmacist, at a time when it was difficult to avoid conscription, caused him to abandon the study of law. In 1812, he was apprenticed to a pharmacist in Dijon. After two years in that city, he went to
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
, where he studied with
Jean Pierre Étienne Vaucher
Jean Pierre Étienne Vaucher (17 April 1763 – 5 or 6 January 1841) was a Swiss Protestant pastor and botanist who was a native of the Republic of Geneva.
He studied theology at Geneva, and from 1795 to 1821 was a pastor at the Church of Sa ...
(1763–1841) and
Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778–1841). One day, while collecting plants in the Alps, he fell and broke his right arm. The injury was slow to heal, and the accident left him with permanent stiffness in the elbow joint. In 1820 he relocated to
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 ...
, where he became
curator
A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
of the
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 ...
and library of botanist
Jules Paul Benjamin Delessert
Jules Paul Benjamin Delessert (14 February 1773 – 1 March 1847) was a French banker and naturalist. He was an honorary member of the Académie des Sciences and many species were named from his natural history collections.
Biography
He was bor ...
(1773–1784).
In 1827 he worked as an ''aide-préparateur'' at the
Muséum national d'histoire naturelle
The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...
. The carefree nature that pervaded his manners masked the prodigious memory that was his special gift. He was able to call to mind any work or plant he had ever seen, even many years later. In 1832 he received his PhD. Two years later he succeeded
Adolphe Brongniart
''Adolphe'' is a classic French novel by Benjamin Constant, first published in 1816. It tells the story of an alienated young man, Adolphe, who falls in love with an older woman, Ellénore, the Polish mistress of the Comte de P***. Their illicit ...
(1801–1876) as an assistant
naturalist to the chair of botany. In 1838 he led a research mission to Brazil to study
tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...
cultivation. While there, he collected plants with
Ludwig Riedel
Ludwig Riedel (2 March 1790, Berlin, Germany – 6 August 1861, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) was a German botanist. Riedel described relatively few species himself, but collected hundreds of new species, many named after him. The genus '' Riedelia'' (E ...
(1790-1861) of the
National Museum of Rio de Janeiro
The National Museum of Brazil ( pt, Museu Nacional) is the oldest scientific institution of Brazil. It is located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where it is installed in the Paço de São Cristóvão (Saint Christopher's Palace), which is in ...
.
[JSTOR Global Plants]
(biography) Upon his return to France, he prepared and published a report on his expedition.
He was awarded the Legion of Honor for his work.
With
Achille Richard
Achille Richard was a French botanist, botanical illustrator and physician (27 April 1794 in Paris – 5 October 1852).
Biography
Achille was the son of the botanist Louis-Claude Marie Richard (1754–1821). He was a pharmacist in the Frenc ...
(1794–1852) and
George Samuel Perrottet (1793–1870), he was co-author of a work on the flora of Senegambia (geographic location of present-day
Senegal
Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤠(Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤠ðž ...
and
Gambia
The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...
) titled ''Florae Senegambiae Tentamen...'' (1830–1833). He was also the author of ''Zephyritis Taïtensis'', considered to be the first enumeration of the plants of
Tahiti
Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...
. From 1834 until his death, he was editor of the ''Annales des Sciences Naturelles Botanique''.
[ A complete listing of Guillemin's written works is given in the French language version of Lasèque's 1842 tribute to Guillemin.]Guilleminea
''Guilleminea'' is a small genus of plants in the family Amaranthaceae. They are sometimes known as matweeds. These are prostrate, mat-forming perennial herbs growing from taproots. The best known species is perhaps '' Guilleminea densa'', the sm ...
'' was named in his honor by Carl Sigismund Kunth.[
]
References
* ''This article is based on a translation of an article from the French Wikipedia
The French Wikipedia (french: Wikipédia en français) is the French-language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. This edition was started on 23 March 2001, two months after the official creation of Wikipedia. It has article ...
, listed as:
** Benoît Dayrat (2003). Les Botanistes et la Flore de France, trois siècles de découvertes. Publication scientifiques du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle : 690 p.
** Philippe Jaussaud & Édouard R. Brygoo (2004). Du Jardin au Muséum en 516 biographies. Muséum national d’histoire naturelle de Paris : 630 p.
External links
IPNI
List of plants described and co-described by Guillemin.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guillemin, Jean Baptiste Antoine
1796 births
1842 deaths
19th-century French botanists
People from Côte-d'Or