Charles Antoine Lemaire (1 November 1800, in

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 ...

– 22 June 1871, in Paris), was a French botanist and botanical author, noted for his publications on

Cactaceae A cactus (: cacti, cactuses, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae (), a family of the order Caryophyllales comprising about 127 genera with some 1,750 known species. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, ...

Education

Born the son of Antoine Charles Lemaire and Marie Jeanne Davio, he had an excellent early education, and acquired the reputation of being an outstanding scholar. He studied at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

and was appointed as Professor of

Classical Literature Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, ...

there. At some stage his botanical interest was sparked and developed by his association with M. Neumann, horticulturist at the Museum of Natural History.

Career

He worked for some time as an assistant to M. Mathieu, at a nursery in Paris, building up a collection of Cactaceae, a group to which he would devote almost all of his life. In 1835, M. Cousin, a Parisian publisher, started a gardening journal and requested that he be its editor. For a number of years, he remained editor of ''Jardin Fleuriste'' and ''L'Horticulteur Universel'', contributing greatly to the content. During this period his principal artist was Jean-Christophe Heyland (1792–1866). In 1845 Lemaire moved to

Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

as editor of the journal '' Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l'Europe'', started by

Louis van Houtte Louis may refer to: People * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer Other uses * Louis (coin), a French coin * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also * ...

. In 1854 he turned to editing ''L'Illustration Horticole'', also in Ghent and owned by Ambroise Verschaffelt, and stayed there until 1870 when he returned to Paris where he died in June 1871. In addition to his enormous contributions to the journals he edited, Lemaire also published numerous papers on the ''Cactaceae'' and succulents. Some of these are ''Cactearum aliquot novarum'' (1838); ''Cactearum genera nova speciesque novae'' (1839); ''Iconographie descriptive des Cactées'' (1841–1847); and ''Les plantes grasses'' (1869). One of the notable genera he named was ''

Schlumbergera ''Schlumbergera'' is a small genus of cactus, cacti with six to nine species found in the coastal mountains of south-eastern Brazil. These plants grow on trees or rocks in habitats that are generally shady with high humidity, and can be quite d ...

'' which contains the well-known Christmas Cactus. He never published a major work on the Cactaceae, despite having collected all the material and a wealth of experience. He always lived in semi-poverty and never attracted the attention of a wealthy sponsor. Édouard André (1840–1911), who succeeded him as editor of ''L'Illustration Horticole'', felt that "Posterity will esteem M. Lemaire more highly than did his contemporaries."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lemaire, Charles Antoine Botanists with author abbreviations French botanical writers 1800 births 1871 deaths French male non-fiction writers