François Richard de Tussac aka Chevalier de Tussac (1751

Poitou Poitou ( , , ; ; Poitevin: ''Poetou'') was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers. Both Poitou and Poitiers are named after the Pictones Gallic tribe. Geography The main historical cities are Poitiers (historical ...

– 1837), he was a French botanist and naturalist from a wealthy family with colonial holdings, and is noted for his four-volum
''Flore des Antilles, ou Histoire générale botanique, rurale et économique des végétaux indigènes des Antilles''
published in Paris by F. Schoell et Hautel, and one of the earliest floras of the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. He became senator for Guadeloupe in the

Antilles The Antilles is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east. The Antillean islands are divided into two smaller groupings: the Greater An ...

and traveled widely through

St. Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1803. The name derives from the Spanish main city on the island, Santo Domingo, which came to ref ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

and

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. In his boo
''Cri des Colons''
(Cry of the Colonies) he opposed giving Blacks more legal rights. De Tussac moved to

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

in 1786 and spent some years collecting plants on the island, later becoming curator of a botanic garden in

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

. He left Haiti in 1802, visited Jamaica and then returned to France, becoming in 1816 director of the ''Jardin Botanique d'Angers'' in Paris, a post that he filled until 1826. ''Flore des Antilles'' appeared from 1808 to 1827. Some 2000 of Tussac's drawings made in Martinique were destroyed by fire in 1802 with the

Haitian Revolution The Haitian Revolution ( or ; ) was a successful insurrection by slave revolt, self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolution was the only known Slave rebellion, slave up ...

. De Tussac's herbarium was saved as were his manuscripts, although their whereabouts are unknown. De Tussac is denoted by the author abbreviation Tussac when

citing A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose o ...

botanical name A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or cultivar group, Group epithets must conform t ...

. and is commemorated by the tree fern '' Alsophila tussacii'' (Desv.) D.S. Conant.

References

1751 births 1834 deaths People from Poitou-Charentes People from Saint-Domingue 18th-century French botanists 19th-century French botanists Botanists with author abbreviations Botanists active in North America Botanists active in the Caribbean 18th-century French historians 19th-century French historians 18th-century French physicians 19th-century French physicians French male non-fiction writers {{france-botanist-stub