Antoine Guichenot or Guichenault (1783–1867) was "gardener's boy" on the 1801—1804 French scientific voyage to Australia under
Nicolas Baudin
Nicolas Thomas Baudin (; 17 February 1754 – 16 September 1803) was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific.
Biography
Early career
Born a comm ...
, and the 1817 voyage under
Louis de Freycinet
Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet (7 August 1779 – 18 August 1841) was a French Navy officer. He circumnavigated the earth, and in 1811 published the first map to show a full outline of the coastline of Australia.
Biography
He was born at ...
. Very little is known about him, but the records of Baudin's voyage, together with annotations on surviving plant specimens collected by him, suggest that he was poorly educated, with atrocious spelling and little knowledge of botany, yet worked extremely hard, collecting more plant specimens than the officially appointed botanist,
Jean Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour
Jean-Baptiste Louis Claude Théodore Leschenault de La Tour (13 November 1773 – 14 March 1826) was a French botanist and ornithologist.
Born at the family seat (since 1718), Le Villard, near Chalon-sur-Saône, Leschenault de la Tour arrived in ...
, and, despite his poor literacy, labelling them with much more useful annotations.
There were five gardeners altogether on the Baudin voyage, the others being
Antoine Sautier,
François Cagnet and Merlot, all under the supervision of Head Gardener
Anselme Riedlé.
[See ]
His contributions to Australian botany are commemorated in the name of the Australian plant genus ''
Guichenotia
''Guichenotia'' is a genus of about 16 species of flowering plants that are endemic to the south west of Western Australia.
The genus was first formally described in 1821 by Jaques Étienne Gay in '' Mémoires du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle'' ...
''.
Guichenault Point, a
promontory on
Peron Peninsula
Peron Peninsula is a long narrow peninsula located in the Shark Bay World Heritage site in Western Australia, at about 25°51' S longitude and 113°30' E latitude. It is some long, running north-northwesterly, located east of Henri Freycin ...
in
Shark Bay, was named after him. ''Guichenot'' is the more commonly used spelling of his name, and widely adopted by botanists; but ''Guichenault'' is used in
François Péron
François Auguste Péron (22 August 1775 – 14 December 1810) was a French naturalist and explorer.
Life
Péron was born in Cérilly, Allier, in 1775, the son of a tailor (not a harness maker as is frequently asserted). Although intended for ...
's journal of the Baudin expedition, and hence for the place named after him.
See also
*
List of gardener-botanist explorers of the Enlightenment
The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration, was a period in history starting in the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century during which Europeans engaged in intensive exploration of the world, establishing di ...
*
European and American voyages of scientific exploration
The era of European and American voyages of scientific exploration followed the Age of Discovery and were inspired by a new confidence in science and reason that arose in the Age of Enlightenment. Maritime expeditions in the Age of Discovery were ...
References
Bibliography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guichenot, Antoine
French explorers
French gardeners
French horticulturists
1783 births
1867 deaths
Explorers of Australia
19th-century explorers
19th-century French botanists