Julien Reverchon (1837–1905) was a French botanist. He was born on 3 August 1837 in

Diémoz Diémoz () is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the ...

and died on 30 December 1905. He was the son of Maximilian and Florine Jacques Reverchon. His father was a follower of the ideas of Charles Fourier (1772–1837), and he decided to join Victor Prosper Considerant (1808–1893) in La Réunion (Dallas), near Dallas, Texas. Julien, who displayed an interest in the natural world at a young age, had already amassed a collection of nearly 2,000 species of plants with his brother. The family arrived at La Réunion in December 1856 and learned of the failure of the Fourier colony. Jacques Reverchon then bought a small farm in the vicinity. Julien began to study the local flora. He married Marie Henri on 24 July 1864; they had two sons who died of typhoid fever in 1884. After abandoning botany for a few years, he started collecting plants in 1869, when he made an expedition to collect fossils with Jacob Boll (1828-1880) in West Texas. With subsequent collections, he contributed to the production of noted floras by

Asa Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually excl ...

(1810–1888) and Charles Sprague Sargent (1841–1927) and the enrichment of many American collections. He taught botany at the end of his life in Dallas. At the time of his death, more than 2,600 species were cultured in his farm, and he possessed a rich

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 ...

of 20,000 specimens. Today, it is kept at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis . The city of Dallas named

Reverchon Park Reverchon Park is a public park in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas, Texas. It was named for Julien Reverchon. The park lies along Turtle Creek, a tributary of the Trinity River. Its main entrance is at Maple Avenue and Turtle Creek Boulevar ...

in his honor.

References

1837 births 1905 deaths 19th-century French botanists {{France-scientist-stub