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


Background

Sessé studied medicine in
Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...
, then moved to Madrid in 1775. In 1779 he became a military physician, in which capacity he visited Cuba, and later New Spain. In 1785 he was named a commissioner of the Royal Botanical Garden in New Spain. At the same time a botanical garden and a course of study on the flora of Mexico at the
Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico The Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico () was a university founded on 21 September 1551 by Royal Decree signed by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Charles I of Spain, in Valladolid, Spain. It is generally considered the first university fou ...
(now UNAM) were authorized. Sessé stopped practicing medicine in order to devote all his energies to botany.


The botanical expedition

In 1786
Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...
, King of Spain, authorized a major botanical expedition known as the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain, that was proposed by Sessé at a time when most of the flora and fauna of Mexico were unknown to European science. Sessé became the head of the expedition and of the botanical garden. His preparation for the expedition began in 1787. It was extensive, and took some time. He visited
Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...
,
Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...
, and Cuba, where similar (though smaller) studies had already been undertaken, to collaborate and learn. In Cuba he collaborated in the search for a treatment of a parasitic illness that had been spreading rapidly. Back in New Spain, he was joined by a group of Spanish botanists selected by Casimiro Gómez Ortega, director of the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid. These included Vicente Cervantes, the first professor of botany in New Spain, who continued to live in the country until his death in 1829; José Longinos Martínez, who organized the Gabinete de Historia Natural, the precursor of the Museum of Natural History; Juan Diego del Castillo, pharmacist and botanist; and José Maldonado. Also among the botanists was
José Mariano Mociño José Mariano Mociño Suárez Lozano (24 September 1757 – 12 June 1820), or simply José Mariano Mociño, was a naturalist from Mexico. After having studied philosophy and medicine, he conducted early research on the botany, geology, and anthro ...
, a native of New Spain. Juan Cerda was the official artist of the expedition, and the Mexican Atanasio Echeverría was also one of the artists. The genus ''
Echeveria ''Echeveria'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the family (biology), family Crassulaceae, native plant, native to semi-desert areas of Central America, Mexico and northwestern South America. Description Echeveria plants are evergreen. Flo ...
'' was named for him. Various companies of scientists were sent to such widely separated destinations as the Pacific coast of Canada, the Greater Antilles,
Yucatán Yucatán, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate municipalities, and its capital city is Mérida. ...
,
Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...
, and
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. Sessé and Mociño worked mostly in the central part of Mexico. The tasks of the expedition included collecting specimens and having paintings of living plants prepared in the field by accompanying artists. In 1793 Castillo died in Mexico, after he had written ''Plantas descritas en el viaje de Acapulco''. The genus '' Castilla'' was named for him by Vicente Cervantes. Although the works of these botanists ended in 1803, it was not until the 1880s that their work was published.
Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...
and his botanist travelling companion
Aimé Bonpland Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland (; 22 August 1773 – 11 May 1858) was a French List of explorers, explorer and botany, botanist who traveled with Alexander von Humboldt in Latin America from 1799 to 1804. He co-authored volumes of the scie ...
were able to examine some of Sessé's and Mociño's results in Mexico in the Museum of Natural History in Madrid before their 1799 departure on their five-year sojourn in Spanish America. However, they did not actually meet Sessé and Mociñno; Humboldt said, "circumstances prevented me from benefiting from the advice of these distinguished scientists, whose insights could have been very useful to me."


Afterwards

After the end of the expedition Sessé returned to Spain with his scientific collections to work on ''Flora Mexicana'', but he died in Madrid in 1808 before publishing it. The scientific collections are held by the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid (about 7100 herbarium sheets with 200 genera and 3500 new species of plants). The great impact that the results of the expedition had on the botanical community has been documented by the botanical scholar Rogers McVaugh, an expert on the flora of Mexico. The paintings remained in the possession of Mociño, who accompanied Sessé to Spain after the expedition, but they appeared lost after his death in 1820 in
Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, where he settled after living in France and Switzerland during periods of political upheaval in Spain. They had become part of a private library, where they remained unrecognized for their significance until 1980. The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation purchased the set, comprising ca. 1800 botanical and ca. 200 zoological subjects, in 1981 from the Torner family. The illustrations are now accessible for study at the Hunt Institute and are available online. The plant genera '' Sessea'', ''Sesseopsis,'' ''Mocinna,'' ''Mozinna,'' and ''Mocinnodaphne'' are named in honor of the expedition leaders.


Other expeditions

The four expeditions authorized by King Charles III to the Spanish colonies were those of
Hipólito Ruiz López Hipólito Ruiz López (August 8, 1754 in Belorado, Burgos, Spain – 1816 in Madrid), or Hipólito Ruiz, was a Spanish botanist known for researching the floras of Peru and Chile during an expedition under Charles III of Spain, Carlos III from 17 ...
and José Antonio Pavón to Peru and Chile (1777–88);
José Celestino Mutis José Celestino Bruno Mutis y Bosio (6 April 1732 – 11 September 1808) was a Spanish people, Spanish priest, botanist and mathematician. He was a significant figure in the Spanish American Enlightenment, whom Alexander von Humboldt met with ...
to New Granada (1783–1808); Juan de Cuéllar to the Philippines (1786–97); and Sessé y Lacasta to New Spain (1787–1803). See also
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 ...
.


Publications

*Sessé, M. y J.M. Mociño, "Flora Mexicana", in ''La Naturaleza'' (2nd series, 1891; 2nd ed., 1894). *''Plantae Novae Hispaniae'' (1889).


References

*"Botánica," ''Enciclopedia de México'', v. 2. Mexico City: 1987.


Further reading

*


External links


José Dionisio Larreátegui, ''Description Botanique du Chiranthodendron'' (1805)

Expedición al Virreinato de Nueva España

Martín Sessé y Lacasta
at the ''
Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa The ''Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa'' (''Great Aragonese Encyclopedia'', commonly abbreviated ''GEA'') is a Spanish language, Aragon-themed, encyclopedia. It was first published in 1981, under the direction of Eloy Fernández Clemente. In 1999, Pren ...
'' * Sessé y Lacasta, Martín de & Mociño y Losada, José Mariano. ''Flora Mexicana, 1894'' at the Biblioteca Digital del Real Jardín Botanico CSI

* Sessé y Lacasta, Martín de & Mociño y Losada, José Mariano. ''Plantae Novae Hispaniae, 1893'' at the Biblioteca Digital del Real Jardín Botanico CSI

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sesse Y Lacasta, Martin 1753 births 1808 deaths People from Jaca 18th-century Spanish botanists 19th-century Spanish botanists People from New Spain