Aimée Antoinette Camus (1 May 1879 – 17 April 1965) was a French

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. She was best known for her study of

orchids Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Earth ...

and

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

s. Camus also has the legacy of authoring the second highest number of land plant species among female scientists, in total naming 677 species.

Biography

Camus was the daughter of

Edmond Gustave Camus Edmond Gustave Camus (1852 – 22 August 1915) was a French pharmacist and botanist known for his work with orchids. A pharmacist by vocation, he was a resident of L'Isle-Adam, Val-d'Oise, L'Isle-Adam, a community near Paris. He was the father of ...

, also a botanist, and was born in L'Isle-Adam, about 50 kilometres north of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Under her father's influence, she specialized in the study of orchids and the anatomy of the plant and worked for some time with other professionals such as Paul Bergon (1863-1912) and Paul Henri Lecomte (1856-1934). She was especially close to her sister, the painter Blanche-Augustine Camus (1881-1968).

Collaboration with the Paris Natural History Museum

From 1922, Camus voluntarily collaborated for more than 30 years as a free worker for the Paris Natural History Museum and her numerous publications are part of the Museum's collections. According to the comments made on her

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

file, she contributed greatly to the influence and reputation of the museum in the world. She produced a major treatment of the

Quercus An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

oaks and

Lithocarpus ''Lithocarpus'' is a genus in the beech family, Fagaceae. Trees in this genus are commonly known as the stone oaks and differ from ''Quercus'' primarily because they produce insect-pollinated flowers on erect spikes and the female flowers hav ...

stone oaks, providing the first comprehensive systematic treatment of the latter genus. She also gave the name of '' Neohouzeaua'' to a genus of seven tropical

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

, in honour of the lifelong work that Jean Houzeau de Lehaie had devoted to the understanding of the botany and propagation of bamboo in Europe and Africa. Aimée Antoinette Camus died on 17 April 1965 at her home in the 15th arrondissement of Paris at the age of 85.

Honors and awards

* Camus was twice laureate of the Institute (academy of sciences) in 1906 and in 1930. * Camus was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor on 3 May 1936 in Paris.

Bibliography

* 1894: ''Plantes récoltées à Morcles ( canton de Vaud) et sur la montagne de Fully (Valais)''. (with Edmond Gustave Camus) Paris: May et Motteroz,Extrait de Bulletin de la Société botanique de France XLI 1894 * 1904: ''Classification de saules d'Europe et monographie des saules de France''. (with Edmond Gustave Camus) Paris: J. Mersch, 1904-5, republished USA: Wentworth Press, 2018. * 1904: ''Atlas de la monographie des saules de France''. Paris: J. Mersch. * 1908: ''Monographie des orchidées de l'Europe de l'Afrique septentrionale, de l'Asie Mineure et des provinces russes transcaspiennes''. Paris: J. Lechevalier. * 1912: ''Florule de Saint-Tropez et de ses environs immédiats''. Paris: Paul Lechevalier. * 1913: ''Espèces et variétés de riz de l'Indochine''. Paris: Laboratoire d'Agronomie coloniale. * 1914: ''Les Cyprès (Genre Cupressus) : monographie systématique, anatomie, culture, principaux usages''. Paris: Paul Lechevalier, 1914 republished by Forgotten Books, 2018 * 1918: ''Note sur les orchidées de la Vallée de Thorenc''. Riviera scientifique (1918), * 1919: ''Note sur quelques orchidées de Vence et de ses environs''. Riviera scientifique (1919), * 1921: ''Les Fleurs des marais, des tourbières, des cours d'eau, des lacs et des étangs (plantes palustres et aquatiques)''. Paris: Paul Lechevalier. * 1921-1929: ''Iconographie des Orchidées d'Europe et du Bassin Méditerranéen''. (with Edmond Gustave Camus & H. Lecomte) Paris: Paul Lechevalier. * 1922: ''Flore générale de l'Indo-Chine''. Vol. 7. Première partie, Eriocaulonacées à Graminées. * 1923: ''Les arbres, arbustes et arbrisseaux d'ornement''. Paris: Paul Lechevalier. * 1924: ''Quelques anomalies florales chez les orchidées''. Bulletin de la Société botanique de France (1924) * 1926: ''Un cyprès nouveau du Tassili'' (Cupressus dupreziana). Bulletin du Musée d'Histoire Naturelle (1926) * 1929: ''Les châtaigniers: monographie des genres Castanea et Castanopsis''. Paris: Paul Lechevalier. * 1935: ''Les chênes dans la production forestière indochinoise''. Revue de botanique appliquee et d'agriculture tropicale, Col. 15 (1935): 20–25. * 1938: ''Quercus ilex L. et espèces asiatiques avec lesquelles il a été confondu''. C.R. Congres Soc. Sav. Nice, 1938. * 1934-1954: ''Les Chênes: monographie du genre Quercus (et Lithocarpus)'' (1992), collection of 72 essays. Paris: Paul Lechevalier. *: 1934: Atlas. Vol I. Sous-genre Cyclobalanopsis. Sous-genre Euquercus (Section Cerris and Mesobalanus). Encyclopédie économique de sylviculture VI. 108 paintings *: 1936-1938: Vol. I Genre Quercus. Sous-genre Cyclobalanopsis et sous-genre Euquercus (Section Cerris et Mesobalanus). *: 1935-1936: Atlas. Vol. II. Sous-genre Euquercus (Section Lepidobalanus). Encyclopédie économique de sylviculture VII. 186 paintings *: 1938-1939: Vol II. Genre Quercus. Sous-genre Euquercus (sections Lepidobalanus et Macrobalanus). *: 1948: Atlas. Vol III. Sous-genre Euquercus (sections Protobalanus et Erythrobalanus) et genre Lithocarpus. Encyclopédie économique de sylviculture VIII. 325 paintings *: 1952-1954: Vol III (Part 1), Vol III (Part 2). Genre Quercus. Sous-genre Euquercus (sections Protobalanus et Erythrobalanus).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Camus, Aumee Antoinette 20th-century French botanists Orchidologists 1879 births 1965 deaths 20th-century French women scientists Agrostologists