Pierre Martin Rémi Aucher-Éloy (2 October 1792 – 6 October 1838) was a French pharmacist and botanist who was a native of

Blois Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours. With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the most populated city of the ...

. He received his education at

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and 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 ...

. Beginning in 1817, he operated a bookstore in Blois, and in 1820, also a print shop. In 1826 he returned to Paris as owner of a print shop.Biodiversity Heritage Library
Taxonomic literature : a selective guide to botanical publication In 1830 he relocated to

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

with aims of creating an '' Herbier d'Orient'' (today's

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

). For the next several years he collected and studied plants throughout

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

, the

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai (now usually ) (, , cop, Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is ...

Chios Chios (; el, Χίος, Chíos , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greek island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. Chios is notable for its exports of masti ...

Kos Kos or Cos (; el, Κως ) is a Greek island, part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Kos is the third largest island of the Dodecanese by area, after Rhodes and Karpathos; it has a population of 36,986 (2021 census), ...

, Syria,

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...

, et al. Stricken by exhaustion and illness, he died near Isfahan on 6 October 1838. Aucher-Éloy sold his collections to the ''

Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loca ...

'' in Paris, from where they were distributed to various

herbaria 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 ...

. His book ''Relations de Voyages en Orient de 1830 à 1838'' was published posthumously in 1843.

Legacy

Aucher-Éloy's name is remembered in the Latin specific epithet of several plants, as chosen by a number of his fellow botanists, including: * '' Ferula aucheri'' -

Boiss. Pierre Edmond Boissier (25 May 1810 Geneva – 25 September 1885 Valeyres-sous-Rances) was a Swiss prominent botanist, explorer and mathematician. He was the son of Jacques Boissier (1784-1857) and Caroline Butini (1786-1836), daughter of Pierr ...

* ''

Iris aucheri ''Iris aucheri'', the Aucher-Éloy iris, is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae. It is a bulbous perennial in the Juno group of irises (multiple flowers per plant). Description ''Iris aucheri'' grows to tall, with crowded lance ...

'' - ( Baker) Sealy (common name: Aucher-Éloy iris) * ''

Muscari aucheri ''Muscari aucheri'', Aucher-Éloy grape hyacinth, is a species of flowering plant in the squill subfamily Scilloideae of the asparagus family Asparagaceae. It is a perennial bulbous plant, one of a number of species and genera known as grape hy ...

'' - (

) Baker (common name: Aucher-Éloy grape hyacinth) * ''Olea aucheri'' - A.Chev. ex Ehrend. (taxonomic synonym for ''Olea europaea'' subsp. ''cuspidata'') * '' Quercus aucheri'' - Jaub. & Spach * '' Rhus aucheri'' -

References

Bilim Tarihi, Biography
1792 births 1838 deaths 19th-century French botanists French taxonomists Scientists from Blois {{France-botanist-stub