Jean Baptiste Louis Pierre (23 October 1833 – 30 October 1905), also known as J. B. Louis Pierre, was a French botanist known for his

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an ...

n studies.

Early life

Pierre was born in Saint-André,

Réunion Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island ...

, and studied in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

before working in the botanical gardens of

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

Career

In 1864 he founded the Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens, which he directed until 1877, after which he returned to Paris where he lived at 63 rue Monge, close to the

Paris Herbarium The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...

. In 1883 he moved to Charenton, then to Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, then (circa 1893) to Saint-Mandé, and finally to 18 rue Cuvier in Paris, where he lived until his death. Pierre made many scientific explorations in tropical Asia. His publications include the ''Flore forestière de la Cochinchine'' (1880-1907), an article "Sur les plantes à caoutchouc de l'Indochine" (''Revue des cultures coloniales'', 1903) and the section on

Sapotaceae 240px, '' Madhuca longifolia'' var. ''latifolia'' in Narsapur, Medak district, India The Sapotaceae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants belonging to the order (biology), order Ericales. The family includes about 800 species of ev ...

in the ''Notes botaniques'' (1890-1891). Several genera have been named in Pierre's honor: in 1907, Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (1844-1930) named '' Pierreodendron'' of the family

Simaroubaceae The Simaroubaceae are a small, mostly tropical, family in the order Sapindales. In recent decades, it has been subject to much taxonomic debate, with several small families being split off. A molecular phylogeny of the family was published in 200 ...

, and in 1909, ''

Pierrina ''Pierrina'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lecythidaceae. It only contains one known species, ''Pierrina zenkeri'' Engl. It is native to Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. The genus name of ''Pierrina'' i ...

'' of the family Scytopetalaceae. in 1912, Gustave Henri Bonati (1873-1927) named ''

Pierranthus ''Pierranthus'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Linderniaceae. The only known species is ''Pierranthus capitatus'' . Its native range is Indo-China and it is found in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. The genus nam ...

'' of the family

Linderniaceae Linderniaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales, which consists of about 25 genera and 265 species occurring worldwide. ''Vandellia micrantha'' is eaten in Laos, but tastes bitter. Best known are the wishbone flowers ''Torenia ...

, and in 1891,

Henry Fletcher Hance Henry Fletcher Hance (4 Aug 1827 – 22 June 1886) was a British diplomat who devoted his spare time to the study of Chinese plants. Born in Brompton, London, his first appointment was to Hong Kong in 1844. In May 1852 in Exeter he married his fi ...

(1827-1886) named ''Pierrea'' of the family

Flacourtiaceae The Flacourtiaceae is a defunct family of flowering plants whose former members have been scattered to various families, mostly to the Achariaceae and Salicaceae. It was so vaguely defined that hardly anything seemed out of place there and it bec ...

(now listed as a synonym of ''

Hopea ''Hopea'' is a genus of plants in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The genus was named after John Hope, 1725–1786, the first Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. It contains some 113 species, distributed from Sri Lanka and sout ...

'' Roxb.). In 1933, a bust in his honor was dedicated in the Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens.

References

Other sources

* F. J. Breteler, "Novitates Gabonenses 55. Manuscript names and drawings of the French botanist Louis Pierre (1833-1905): a discussion about their validity with some examples of nomenclatural consequences for the Gabonese flora in particular", Herbarium Vadense, Biosystematics Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen (Netherlands)

* Umberto Quattrocchi (2000). ''CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names'', CRC Press : 2896 p. . * A. Chevalier, "J.B.-Louis Pierre, 1833-1905, botaniste français", ''Agric. pratiq. Pays Chauds'': 1-15, 1906. * F. Gagnepain, "J.-B.-Louis Pierre (1833-1905). Notice nécrologique", ''Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. nat. Paris'', sér. 4, 8: xix-xxxi, 1906. * F. Gagnepain, "Notice biographique sur J.-B.-Louis Pierre", ''Bull. Soc. bot. France'' 53: 54–59, 1906. * ''Bulletin de la Société des études indo-chinoises de Saigon'', v.13, page 179, 1939. * ''Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society'', v.59, page 348, 1962. * ''Bulletin de la Société des études indochinoises'', pages 184–185, 1974. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pierre, Jean Baptiste Louis 19th-century French botanists 1833 births 1905 deaths