Théodore (Teodoro) Caruel (27 June 1830 – 4 December 1898) was an Italian

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 ...

of French-English parentage who specialized in flora of

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze''). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...

. He was born in Chandernagor, a French colonial enclave north 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 ...

, where his father served as a French official. At the age of 15, he moved with his family to

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, where soon afterwards, he developed an interest in

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

, in particular, flora native to Tuscany. In 1858 he began work as an assistant to

Filippo Parlatore Filippo Parlatore ( Palermo, 8 August 1816 – Florence, 9 September 1877) was an Italian botanist. He studied medicine at Palermo, but practiced only for a short time, his chief activity being during the cholera epidemic of 1837. Although at ...

, and within a few years was given the title of coadjutor. With Parlatore, he conducted research at the ''

Orto Botanico di Firenze The Orto Botanico di Firenze (2.3 hectares), also known as the Giardino dei Semplici, the "Garden of simples",A ''simple'' is a medicament obtained from an herb (see Herbalism), as opposed to a ''compound'' mixed by the apothecary on instruction fr ...

'' (botanic museum of Florence) and worked on the development of the Florence

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 ...

.Google Books
Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, Volume 37 edited by Berthold SeemannJSTOR Global Plants
biography In 1862 he was named an associate professor at the scientific academy in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, returning to Florence one year later as a professor of botany at the medical college. In 1871 he transferred to

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...

, where he taught classes in botany at the Athenaeum, and in 1880, again returned to Florence, this time serving as director of its botanical institute. After his death, his herbarium was donated to the botanical institute at the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa ( it, Università di Pisa, UniPi), officially founded in 1343, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. History The Origins The University of Pisa was officially founded in 1343, although various scholars place ...

. As a

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given ...

, he circumscribed the plant families

Sarcolaenaceae The Sarcolaenaceae are a family of flowering plants endemic to Madagascar. The family includes 79 species of mostly evergreen trees and shrubs in ten genera. Recent DNA studies indicate that the Sarcolaenaceae are a sibling taxon to the family ...

Stemonaceae The Stemonaceae are a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants placed in the order Pandanales. The family consists of four genera with ca 37 known species distributed in areas with seasonal climate across Southeast Asia and tropical Australia. ...

and

Welwitschiaceae Welwitschiaceae is a family of plants of the order Gnetales with one living species, ''Welwitschia mirabilis'', found in southwestern Africa. Three fossil genera have been recovered from the Crato Formation – late Aptian (Lower Cretaceous) str ...

, and was the botanical authority of several genera and numerous species. The genus ''

Caruelina ''Chomelia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It is native to Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and much of South America as far south as Argentina. Species *''Chomelia albicaulis'' ( Rusby) Steyerm. - Bolivia *' ...

'' (family

Rubiaceae The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules ...

) was named in his honor by

Otto Kuntze Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze (23 June 1843 – 27 January 1907) was a German botanist. Biography Otto Kuntze was born in Leipzig. An apothecary in his early career, he published an essay entitled ''Pocket Fauna of Leipzig''. Between 1863 and 1866 he ...

Published works

He is credited with the continuation of Parlatore's massive "''Flora Italiana''" project (first volume 1848), of which he contributed several new volumes from 1884 onward. Other noted written efforts by Caruel include: *"Illustratio in hortum siccum Andreae Caesalpini ..." (1858); On the herbarium of

Andrea Caesalpino Andrea Cesalpino ( Latinized as Andreas Cæsalpinus) (6 June 1524 – 23 February 1603) was a Florentine physician, philosopher and botanist. In his works he classified plants according to their fruits and seeds, rather than alphabetically o ...

. *"Correspondence : Caruel (Teodoro) and Engelmann (George), 1864–1880". On correspondence with American botanist

George Engelmann George Engelmann, also known as Georg Engelmann, (2 February 1809 – 4 February 1884) was a German-American botanist. He was instrumental in describing the flora of the west of North America, then very poorly known to Europeans; he was particu ...

, published in English. *''Statistica botanica della Toscana, ossia, Saggio di studi sulla distribuzione geografica delle piante toscane'', (1871). *''Prodromo della flora toscana, ossia'', (1880).WorldCat Search
published works

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Caruel, Teodoro 1830 births 1898 deaths Academic staff of the University of Pisa Academic staff of the University of Florence Academic staff of the University of Milan 19th-century Italian botanists