Jean Baptiste Louis Pierre (23 October 1833 – 30 October 1905), also known as J. B. Louis Pierre, was a French botanist known for his

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

n studies.

Early life

Pierre was born in Saint-André, Réunion, and studied in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...

before working in the botanical gardens of

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Career

In 1864 he founded the

Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens The Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens (French: ''Jardin botanique et zoologique de Saïgon'', Vietnamese: ''Thảo Cầm Viên Sài Gòn'') is Vietnam's largest zoo and botanical garden. The Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens was commissioned by Adm ...

, which he directed until 1877, after which he returned to Paris where he lived at 63 rue Monge, close to the Paris Herbarium. In 1883 he moved to Charenton, then to Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, then (circa 1893) to Saint-Mandé, and finally to 18 rue Cuvier in Paris, where he lived until his death. Pierre made many scientific explorations in tropical Asia. His publications include the ''Flore forestière de la Cochinchine'' (1880-1907), an article "Sur les plantes à caoutchouc de l'Indochine" (''Revue des cultures coloniales'', 1903) and the section on

Sapotaceae 240px, '' Madhuca longifolia'' var. ''latifolia'' in Narsapur, Medak district, India The Sapotaceae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants belonging to the order (biology), order Ericales. The family includes about 800 species of ev ...

in the ''Notes botaniques'' (1890-1891). Several genera have been named in Pierre's honor: in 1907,

Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families''), edited with ...

(1844-1930) named ''

Pierreodendron ''Pierreodendron'' is a genus of plants in the family Simaroubaceae. Its native range is western tropical Africa and is found in Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Togo and Zaïre. The genus name of ''Pi ...

'' of the family

Simaroubaceae The Simaroubaceae are a small, mostly tropical, family in the order Sapindales. In recent decades, it has been subject to much taxonomic debate, with several small families being split off. A molecular phylogeny of the family was published in 20 ...

, and in 1909, '' Pierrina'' of the family

Scytopetalaceae The Lecythidaceae comprise a family (biology), family of about 20 genera and 250–300 species of woody plants native to tropical South America, Africa (including Madagascar), Asia and Australia. The most important member of the family in wor ...

. in 1912, Gustave Henri Bonati (1873-1927) named '' Pierranthus'' of the family

Linderniaceae Linderniaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales, which consists of about 25 genera and 265 species occurring worldwide. '' Vandellia micrantha'' is eaten in Laos, but tastes bitter. Best known are the wishbone flowers ''Toreni ...

, and in 1891, Henry Fletcher Hance (1827-1886) named ''Pierrea'' of the family

Flacourtiaceae The Flacourtiaceae is a defunct family of flowering plants whose former members have been scattered to various families, mostly to the Achariaceae and Salicaceae. It was so vaguely defined that hardly anything seemed out of place there and it beca ...

(now listed as a synonym of ''

Hopea ''Hopea'' is a genus of plants in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The genus was named after John Hope, 1725–1786, the first Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. It contains some 113 species, distributed from Sri Lanka and south ...

'' Roxb.). In 1933, a bust in his honor was dedicated in the

References

Other sources

* F. J. Breteler, "Novitates Gabonenses 55. Manuscript names and drawings of the French botanist Louis Pierre (1833-1905): a discussion about their validity with some examples of nomenclatural consequences for the Gabonese flora in particular", Herbarium Vadense, Biosystematics Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen (Netherlands)

* Umberto Quattrocchi (2000). ''CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names'', CRC Press : 2896 p. . * A. Chevalier, "J.B.-Louis Pierre, 1833-1905, botaniste français", ''Agric. pratiq. Pays Chauds'': 1-15, 1906. * F. Gagnepain, "J.-B.-Louis Pierre (1833-1905). Notice nécrologique", ''Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. nat. Paris'', sér. 4, 8: xix-xxxi, 1906. * F. Gagnepain, "Notice biographique sur J.-B.-Louis Pierre", ''Bull. Soc. bot. France'' 53: 54–59, 1906. * ''Bulletin de la Société des études indo-chinoises de Saigon'', v.13, page 179, 1939. * ''Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society'', v.59, page 348, 1962. * ''Bulletin de la Société des études indochinoises'', pages 184–185, 1974. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pierre, Jean Baptiste Louis 19th-century French botanists 1833 births 1905 deaths