Henri Ernest Baillon 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 ...

and

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

. He was born in

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

on 30 November 1827 and died in

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 ...

on 19 July 1895. Baillon spent his professional life as a professor of natural history, and he published numerous works on botany. He was appointed to the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

in 1867 and joined the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1894. Baillon put together the "Dictionnaire de botanique", for which

Auguste Faguet Auguste Faguet (Tours, 8/11/1826 – Paris, 21/08/1900) was a noted 19th-century French botanical illustrator, well known for his contributions to major botanical works. Auguste Faguet produced fine botanical wood engravings to illustrate the w ...

produced the

wood engraving Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or ''matrix'' of images into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and ...

s. The plant genus '' Baillonia'' (family

Verbenaceae The Verbenaceae ( ), the verbena family or vervain family, is a family of mainly tropical flowering plants. It contains trees, shrubs, and herbs notable for heads, spikes, or clusters of small flowers, many of which have an aromatic smell. The ...

) was named in his honor by

Henri Théophile Bocquillon Henri Théophile Bocquillon (5 June 1834, Crugny – 15 May 1884, Paris) was a French botanist. In Paris, he successively worked as an instructor at the Lycée Napoleon (from 1858), Lycée Louis-le-Grand (from 1862), Lycée Henri-IV (from 186 ...

.Names: Common Names, Scientific Names, Eponyms ...
by Umberto Quattrocchi

Selected publications

* ''Étude générale du groupe des Euphorbiacées'' (1858) * ''Monographie des Buxacées et des Stylocérée'' (1859) * ''Recherches organogéniques sur la fleur femelle des Conifères'' (1860) * ''Recherches sur l’organisation, le développement et l’anatomie des Caprifoliacées'' (1864) * ''Adansonia, recueil périodique d’observations botaniques'' (12 volumes, 1866–1879)
''Histoire des plantes'' (thirteen volumes, 1867-1895)
* ''Dictionnaire de botanique'' (four volumes, 1876–1892) * ''Histoire naturelle des plantes de Madagascar'' (three volumes) * ''Traité de botanique médicale phanérogamique'' (1883-1884). * *

References

Botanists with author abbreviations 19th-century French botanists 1827 births 1895 deaths Foreign Members of the Royal Society Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala {{France-med-bio-stub