Father Paul Guillaume Farges (1844–1912) was a French

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

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 plant collector, based for much of his life (from 1867) in China, serving at

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...

from 1892 until his death. He collected over 4,000 plant specimens, including numerous species new to science, which were sent back to the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, where they were named and described by Adrien Franchet. His name is commemorated in several plants, including ''

Abies fargesii ''Abies fargesii'' () is a species of fir, a coniferous tree in the family Pinaceae. Its common name is Farges' fir, after the French missionary, botanist and plant collector, Paul Guillaume Farges. ''Abies fargesii'' can grow very large and be u ...

'', '' Corylus fargesii'', ''

Decaisnea fargesii ''Decaisnea fargesii'', the blue sausage fruit, blue bean shrub or dead men's fingers, is a member of the family Lardizabalaceae, and is native to Nepal, Tibet and China. It is a deciduous shrub which grows to 4 m tall and broad, but may achieve ...

'', '' Salix fargesii'', and ''

Torreya fargesii ''Torreya fargesii'' (Farges nutmeg tree, ) is a species of conifer in the family Taxaceae. It is a large tree that can be up to tall. It is endemic to central and southern China; it is found in Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Yun ...

''. Most notably, the bamboo genus ''

Fargesia ''Fargesia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family. These bamboos are native primarily to China, with a few species in Vietnam and in the eastern Himalayas. Some species are cultivated as ornamentals, with common names including umb ...

'' is named for him.

References

19th-century French botanists Botanists active in China Roman Catholic missionaries in Sichuan Roman Catholic missionaries in Tibet 1844 births 1912 deaths Missionary botanists 20th-century French botanists Christianity in Chongqing {{France-botanist-stub

See also

References