Jean-Baptiste Édouard Bornet (September 2, 1828,

Guérigny Guérigny () is a commune in the Nièvre department in central France. Demographics See also * Communes of the Nièvre department A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivatio ...

– December 18, 1911,

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 ...

) 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 ...

Life

Bornet studied medicine in Paris, and in 1886 became a member of the French

Académie des sciences The French Academy of 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 method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

. With

Gustave Thuret Gustave Adolphe Thuret (23 May 1817 – 10 May 1875) was a French botanist, and founder of the Jardin botanique de la Villa Thuret. Biography Born in Paris, he belonged to an old Huguenot family, which had sought refuge in Weesp (Dutch Republi ...

, he was co-author of ''Notes algologiques'' (1876-1880) and the ''Études phycologiques'' (1878), both works being published after Thuret's death in 1875. He helped establish the nature of

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

s and was the first to find the reproductive process of

red algae Red algae, or Rhodophyta (, ; ), make up one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae. The Rhodophyta comprises one of the largest Phylum, phyla of algae, containing over 7,000 recognized species within over 900 Genus, genera amidst ongoing taxon ...

. In the field of

lichenology Lichenology is the branch of mycology that studies the lichens, symbiotic organisms made up of an intimate symbiotic association of a microscopic alga (or a cyanobacterium) with a Hypha, filamentous fungus. Lichens are chiefly characterized by th ...

, he wrote ''Recherches sur les gonidies des lichens'' (1873). With

Charles Flahault Charles Henri Marie Flahault (3 October 18523 February 1935) was a French botanist, among the early pioneers of phytogeography, phytosociology, and forest ecology. The word '' relevé'' for a plant community sample is his invention. Early life an ...

, he published on

Nostocaceae The Nostocaceae are a family of cyanobacteria that forms filamentation, filament-shaped colony (biology), colonies enclosed in mucus or a gelatinous sheath. Some genera in this family are found primarily in fresh water (such as ''Nostoc''), whil ...

: ''Revision des Nostocacées héterocystées'' (1886–88).

Awards and honours

In 1877, botanist Munier-Chalmas published ''

Bornetella ''Bornetella'' is a genus of green algae in the family Dasycladaceae. The genus name of ''Bornetella'' is in honour of Jean-Baptiste Édouard Bornet (1828–1911), was a French botanist and the genus was published in Compt. Rend. Hebd. Seances ...

'' is a

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 ...

green algae The green algae (: green alga) are a group of chlorophyll-containing autotrophic eukaryotes consisting of the phylum Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister group that contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/ Streptophyta. The land plants ...

in the family

Dasycladaceae The Dasycladaceae is one of the two extant family (biology), families of green algae of the order Dasycladales. When found in Palaeozoic limestones, they typically indicate depositional depth of less than 5m.See the National Center for Biotechnol ...

and named in Jean-Baptiste Édouard Bornet's honor. Bornet was elected a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

in 1888. He was awarded the

Linnean Medal The Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London was established in 1888, and is awarded annually to alternately a botanist or a zoologist or (as has been common since 1958) to one of each in the same year. The medal was of gold until 1976, and ...

in 1891. Bornet was elected an International Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1893. Bornet was elected an International Member of the United States

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

in 1901. He was admitted as a Foreign Member to the United Kingdom's

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1910. Bornet was elected an International Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1911.

References

1828 births 1911 deaths 20th-century French botanists People from Nièvre Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Foreign members of the Royal Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Members of the French Academy of Sciences French phycologists 19th-century French botanists Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala {{France-botanist-stub International members of the American Philosophical Society