Antoine Nicolas Duchesne (born 7 October 1747

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

; died 18 February 1827

Paris Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

) was a French botanist known for his keen observation of variation within species, and for demonstrating that species are not immutable, because

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, m ...

s can occur.Darrow, G.M. 1966. The Strawberry: History, Breeding and Physiology. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
"As Duchesne's observations were unaided by knowledge of modern concepts of genetics and molecular biology, his insight was truly remarkable." His particular interests were in strawberries and gourds.Ratcliff, M. J. (2007). ''Duchesne’s Strawberries: Between Growers’ Practices and Academic Knowledge''. In S. Müller-Wille and H.-J. Rheinberger ds. ''Heredity Produced: At the Crossroads of Biology, Politics, and Culture, 1500–1870''. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. pp. 205–228 Duchesne worked in the

gardens of Versailles The Gardens of Versailles (french: Jardins du château de Versailles ) occupy part of what was once the ''Domaine royal de Versailles'', the royal demesne of the château of Versailles. Situated to the west of the palace, the gardens cover so ...

, where he was a student of Bernard de Jussieu and corresponded with

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

. He established a notable collection of strawberries in the botanical garden of the

Petit Trianon The Petit Trianon (; French for "small Trianon") is a Neoclassical style château located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France. It was built between 1762 and 1768 during the reign of King Louis XV of France. ...

and was the first to document the separation of sexes in wild strawberry and the hybrid origin of the garden strawberry. The genus ''

Duchesnea ''Potentilla indica'' known commonly as mock strawberry, Indian-strawberry, or false strawberry, often referred to as a backyard strawberry, mainly in North America, is a flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. It has foliage and an aggregate ac ...

Sm. __NOTOC__ Sir James Edward Smith (2 December 1759 – 17 March 1828) was an English botanist and founder of the Linnean Society. Early life and education Smith was born in Norwich in 1759, the son of a wealthy wool merchant. He displayed a ...

(Rosaceae) was named after him.

Works (selected)

* ''Manuel de botanique, contenant les propriétés des plantes utiles'', 1764 * ''Essai sur l’histoire naturelle des courges'' paru dans l’''Encyclopédie méthodique'' de

Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (; ), was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biolog ...

1764. * ''Histoire naturelle des fraisiers contenant les vues d'économie réunies à la botanique et suivie de remarques particulières sur plusieurs points qui ont rapport à l'histoire naturelle générale'', Didot jeune, Paris 1766. on line a
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
an
GoogleBooks
* ''Le Jardinier prévoyant, contenant par forme de tableau, le rapport des opérations journalières avec le temps des récoltes successives qu'elles préparent''. 11 vols. P. F. Didot jeune, Paris 1770-1781 * ''Sur la formation des jardins'', Dorez, Paris 1775. * ''Le Porte-feuille des enfans, mélange intéressant d'animaux, fruits, fleurs, habillemens, plans, cartes et autres objets...''. Mérigot jeune, Paris, .d., probably 1784 * ''Le Livret du ″Porte-feuille des enfans″, à l'usage des écoles... d'après la loi du 11 germinal an IV''. Imprimerie de Gueffier, Paris, an VI – 1797. * ''Le Cicerone de Versailles, ou l'Indicateur des curiosités et des établissemens de cette ville...''. J.-P. Jacob, Versailles, an XII — 1804; revised and augmented in 1815.

Sources

* Adrien Davy de Virville (ed.) (1955) ''Histoire de la botanique en France.'' Paris: SEDES 394 p.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duchesne, Antoine Nicolas 1747 births 1827 deaths 19th-century French botanists Proto-evolutionary biologists 18th-century French botanists

Works (selected)

Sources

Further reading

References