Augustin François César Prouvençal de Saint-Hilaire (4 October 17793 September 1853) was French

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 traveller who was born and died in

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. A keen observer, he is credited with important discoveries in botany, notably the direction of the

radicle In botany, the radicle is the first part of a seedling (a growing plant embryo) to emerge from the seed during the process of germination. The radicle is the embryonic root of the plant, and grows downward in the soil (the shoot emerges from ...

in the embryo sac and the double point of attachment of certain

ovule In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: the ''integument'', forming its outer layer, the ''nucellus'' (or remnant of the megasporangium), and the fe ...

s. He also described two families, the Paronychiae and the

Tamariscinae The Tamaricaceae, the tamarisk family, are a family of plants native to drier areas of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It contains four genera: '' Tamarix'' (with 73 species), '' Reaumuria'' (25 species), '' Myricaria'' (13 species), and '' Myrtama'' ...

, as well as many genera and species.

Biography

He began to publish

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

s on botanical subjects at an early age. Between 1816 and 1822 and again in 1830, he traveled in South America, especially in south and central

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and the results of his study of the rich

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

of the regions through which he passed appeared in several books and numerous articles in scientific journals. In his first voyage, from 1816 to 1822, he explored the Brazilian backlands, traveling ca. 9,000 km, from

Southeast Brazil The Southeast Region of Brazil ( pt, Região Sudeste do Brasil; ) is composed of the states of Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. It is the richest region of the country, responsible for approximately 60% of the Brazilian ...

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and fo ...

, including the former Cisplatina Province (

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

). He was able to gather 24,000 specimens of plants, with 6,000

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, 2,000 birds, 16,000

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s and 135

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s, plus many

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

mollusks Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

and

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

es. Most of these species were described for the first time. In the next years he devoted himself to the study, classification, description and publication of this huge material, but he was considerably impaired by his ill health, due to diseases contracted during the tropical travels. In 1819 he was appointed correspondent of the

Académie des Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...

. He was awarded the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

at the level of Chevalier, and the Portuguese Order of Christ.

Works

The works by which he is best known are the ''Flora Brasiliae Meridionalis'' in three volumes (1825–1832), published in conjunction with

Adrien-Henri de Jussieu Adrien-Henri de Jussieu (23 December 1797 – 29 June 1853) was a French botanist. Born in Paris as the son of botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1824 with a treatise of the plant family (biol ...

and

Jacques Cambessèdes Jacques Cambessèdes (26 August 1799 – 19 October 1863) was a French botanist born in Montpellier. In March – June 1825, prompted by suggestions of Jaques Étienne Gay and Alexander von Humboldt, Cambessèdes performed investigation ...

, and illustrated by

Pierre Jean François Turpin Pierre Jean François Turpin (11 March 1775, Vire – 1 May 1840) was a French botanist and illustrator. He is considered one of the greatest floral and botanical illustrators during the Napoleonic Era and afterwards. As an artist, Turpin was la ...

''Histoire des Plantes les plus Remarquables du Brésil et du Paraguay''
(1824)
''Plantes Usuelles des Brésiliens''
(1827–1828), also in conjunction with de Jussieu and Cambessèdes(1828); an
''Voyage Dans le District des Diamants et sur le littoral du Brésil''
in two volumes (1833). His ''Leçons de Botanique, Comprénant Principalement la Morphologie Végetale'' (1840), was a comprehensive exposition of botanical morphology and of its application to

systematic botany Plant taxonomy is the science that finds, identifies, describes, classifies, and names plants. It is one of the main branches of taxonomy (the science that finds, describes, classifies, and names living things). Plant taxonomy is closely allied ...

. He died at Orléans on 3 September 1853.

List of selected publications

* *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Hilaire, Augustin French mycologists Pteridologists 1779 births 1853 deaths Botanists active in South America Botanists with author abbreviations Members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences Members of the French Academy of Sciences Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Scientists from Orléans 19th-century French botanists

Biography

Works

List of selected publications

See also

References

External links