Vicente or Vincente de Cervantes (1755 in Ledrada – 1829 in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

) was a notable

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

and Mexican physician and

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 ...

Background

Don Vicente Cervantes was a contemporary of

Martín Sessé y Lacasta Martín Sessé y Lacasta (December 11, 1751 – October 4, 1808) was a Spanish botanist, who relocated to New Spain (now Mexico) during the 18th century to study and classify the flora of the territory. Background Sessé studied medicine in ...

and corresponded with

Jean-Louis Berlandier Jean-Louis Berlandier (1803 – 1851) was a French-Mexican natural history, naturalist, physician, and anthropologist. Early life Berlandier was born in Geneva, and later trained as a Botany, botanist there. During this time he probably served a ...

, the French naturalist who botanized in Mexico and

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

as part of the Mexican Boundary Commission. He was also the first Professor of Botany in

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

, at the Royal Botanic Garden in Mexico City. It is after him that the magnificent Odontoglossum orchid, the "Cervantes Odontoglot" ('' Odontoglossum cervantesii''), is named. Juan Diego del Castillo (d. 1793) joined Cervantes in

. Del Castillo left a large sum of money towards the printing of their projected book ''Flora Mexicana''. Cervantes named the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

'' Castilla'', consisting of three large latex yielding trees, after him.M.J.R. Loadman, ''Tears of the Tree: The Story of Rubber –a Modern Marvel'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 25.

Notes

Publications

*Vicente de Cervantes, Castilla, in Gazeta de Literatura de México 1794, Suppl.: 7. (2 July 1794)

References

*"La realidad se ha convertido en una materia" ''Enciclopedia de México'', v. 2. Mexico City: 1987.

External links

Berlandier papers at Harvard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cervantes, Vicente 1755 births 1829 deaths People from the Province of Salamanca 18th-century Spanish botanists 19th-century Spanish botanists Immigrants to New Spain