Henri François Pittier de Fabrega (August 13, 1857 in Bex, Switzerland – January 27, 1950 in
Caracas, Venezuela) was a
Swiss-born geographer and botanist who started Venezuelan National Park history.
Biography
He graduated as an engineer from the
University of Jena
The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany.
The un ...
and moved to
Costa Rica in 1887,
where he founded the Physical Geographic Institute and an herbarium. Pittier collected fungi in Costa Rica which was published as a paper in 1896 by
Marietta Hanson Rousseau and
Elisa Caroline Bommer
Elise Caroline Bommer (calling name: Elisa) née Destrée (20 January 1832 in Laeken – 17 January 1910 in Brussels), was a Belgian botanist specialising in mycology, and was the wife of pteridologist and collector Jean-Édouard Bommer ( ...
, and collected spiders that were detailed or described by A. Getaz in a paper in 1893, and collected at various dates and locations in the prior four years. That latter work also mentions a specimen from Greytown (Nicaragua) also collected by H.Pittier.
Pittier arrived in
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
in 1917, where he classified more than 30,000 plants and devoted many years to studying the flora and fauna in the country.
Henri Pittier National Park
Henri Pittier National Park is the oldest national park in Venezuela, originally created in 1937 under the name of ''Rancho Grande'' by decree of President Eleazar López Contreras. In 1953 the park was renamed in honor of Henri Pittier, a distin ...
was the first national park established in Venezuela.
The plant genera ''Pittiera'' (now considered a synonym of ''
Polyclathra''), ''Pittierella'' (now considered a synonym of ''
Cryptocentrum'') and ''Pittierothamnus'' (now considered a synonym of ''
Amphidasya'') are named after him.
His name is also associated with
Pittier's crab-eating rat, ''Ichthyomys pittieri''. and more than 500 species honor him.
The Venezuelan government grants the Henri Pittier Order of Merit to Conservation.
Works
He was the author of more than 300 papers on topics in botany, geography, forestry,
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
,
ethnography,
linguistics
Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...
,
geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
, and
climatology
Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , ''-logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of study ...
.
* ''Primitiae florae costaricensis'', 1891 (with
Théophile Alexis Durand).
* ''Ensayo lexicográfico sobre la lengua de térraba'', 1892.
* ''Die Sprache der Bribri-Indianer in Costa Rica'', 1898 (with Friedrich Müller).
* ''Manual de agricultura tropical'', 1901, (with
Henry Alfred Alford Nicholls
Sir Henry Alfred Alford Nicholls (27 September 1851 – 9 February 1926) was a physician, disease specialist, horticulturist, zoologist and legislator in, and publicist for Dominica for over 50 years. He published on a wide variety of topics and ...
).
* ''Kostarika, beiträge zur orographie und hydrographie'', 1912.
* ''Manual de las plantas usuales de Venezuela'', 1926.
* ''Clave analítica de las familias de plantas superiores de la América tropical'', 1926.
* ''Apuntaciones etnológicas sobre los indios bribri'', 1938.
* ''Genera Plantarum Venezuelensium'', 1939.
**Works by Pittier that have been published in English:
* "Ethnographic and linguistic notes on the Paez Indians of Tierra Adentro, Cauca, Columbia", 1907.
* "The Mexican and Central American species of Sapium", 1908.
* "New or noteworthy plants from Colombia and Central America", 1909.
* "A preliminary treatment of the genus Castilla", 1910.
* "On the relationship of the genus Aulacocarpus, with description of a new Panamanian species", 1914.
* "Preliminary revision of the genus Inga", 1916.
* "The middle American species of Lonchocarpus", 1917.
* "New or noteworthy plants from Colombia and Central America
o.8", 1922.
* "The Lecythidaceae of Central America", 1927.
**Books about Henri François Pittier
* "The Role of Geographer and Natural Scientist Henri Francois Pittier (1857–1950) in the Evolution of Geography as a Science in Costa Rica". Leon I. Yacher; Edwin Mellen Press, Jan 1, 2004 - History - 291 pages.
Google Books
The Role of Geographer and Natural Scientist Henri Francois Pittier, etc.
See also
* Henri Pittier - Wikipedia, in Spanish
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pittier, Henri Francois
19th-century Swiss botanists
Botanists active in Central America
1857 births
1950 deaths
Swiss emigrants to Costa Rica
University of Jena alumni
19th-century Venezuelan botanists
20th-century Venezuelan botanists