Christian Horace Benedict Alfred Moquin-Tandon (7 May 1804 – 15 April 1863) was a French
naturalist and doctor.
Moquin-Tandon was professor of
zoology
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...
at
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fran ...
from 1829 until 1833, when he was appointed professor of
botany
Botany, also called plant science (or plant sciences), 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 "bot ...
and director of the
botanical garden
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
s at
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. The city is on t ...
. In 1850, he was sent by the French government to
Corsica to study the island's flora. In 1853, he moved to Paris, later becoming director of the
Jardin des Plantes and 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 ...
.
His books included ''L'Histoire Naturelle des Iles Canaries'' (1835–44), co-authored with
Philip Barker Webb
Philip Barker Webb (10 July 1793 – 31 August 1854) was an English botanist.
Life
Webb was born to a wealthy, aristocratic family; his father was the lord of the manors of Witley and Milford, in Surrey, England. Webb was educated at Harrow ...
and
Sabin Berthelot.
One of his specialities was the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
Amaranthaceae
Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus '' Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, making i ...
(The
Amaranth
''Amaranthus'' is a cosmopolitan genus of annual or short-lived perennial plants collectively known as amaranths. Some amaranth species are cultivated as leaf vegetables, pseudocereals, and ornamental plants. Catkin-like cymes of densely ...
family).
Several genera of plants have been named in his honour, including in 1838,
DC.
Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candolle ...
published ''
Moquinia'', a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
of flowering plants from Brazil, in the
''Moquinia'' tribe within the
sunflower family. Then in 1954, Simone Balle published ''
Moquiniella'' a genus of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...
s from Africa, belonging to the family
Loranthaceae. Lastly in 2013, botanists (Cabrera) G.Sancho published ''
Moquiniastrum'', a genus of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...
s from South America, belonging to the family
Asteraceae
The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae ...
.
Bibliography
* Moquin-Tandon A. (1855–1856). ''Histoire naturelle des mollusques terrestres et fluviatiles de France, contenant des études générales sur leur anatomie et leur physiologie et la description particulière des genres, des espèces et des variétés''. (4-5), 368 pp., J.-B. Baillière, Paris.
*
volume 1*
volume 2*
References
External links
*
French naturalists
1804 births
1863 deaths
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
{{France-botanist-stub