DEATH OF PHILIPPE DE VILMORIN 



PHILIPPE LEVEQUE DE VIL- 

 MORIN, one of the most con- 

 spicuous figures in European 

 genetics, died on June 30 at the 

 age of forty-five, according to a cable- 

 gram received by President David 

 Fairchild of the American Genetic 

 Association. A reserve officer in the 

 French Army, he was for a time attaclied 

 to the Anglo-Indian Army in France as 

 an interpreter, and later was a French 

 Purchasing Agent in London. He had 

 been ill in Southern France for some 

 months, presumably as the result of 

 overwork. 



Although identified with plant-breed- 

 ing, j\I. de Vilmorin also carried on dog- 

 breeding experiments for many years. 

 His closest scientific affiliations were 

 with Wilham Bateson of England, 

 whom he regarded as his Mentor, and 

 J. P. Lotsy, the Dutch botanist. He 

 was secretary of the last International 

 Conference on Genetics,- and a life 

 member of the American Genetic Asso- 

 ciation. He had made num.erous trips 

 to America, had many friends here, and 

 published a report for the French Gov- 

 ernment on agriculture at the St. Louis 

 Exposition. His published work is 

 considerable in size and value, but his 

 greatest contribution to genetics was, 

 perhaps, his personal influence, which 

 can only be understood by the help 

 of a knowledge of his family history. 



As early as 1727 there was in Paris a 

 seed store "An coqne de la bonne Joy," 

 kept by Pierre Geoffroy, whose daughter 

 and heiress married Pierre d Andrieux, a 

 botanist. Their daughter in turn mar- 

 ried, in 1774, Philippe-Victoire Leveque 

 de Vilmorin, a young botanist belonging 

 to a Lorraine family which was identified 

 with war and agriculture,. Thus was 

 founded the business still known as 

 Vilmorin-Andrieux and Company, one of 

 the most celebrated seed-growing and 

 seed-selling establishments in the world. 



PRODUCTION OF THE SUGAR-BEET 



The business was handed on from 

 father to son, and the famJlv grew in 



size and importance as did the business, 

 the two being identified in a remarkable 

 way. Many de Vilmorins have, in 

 every generation, been identified with 

 the progress of scientific agriculture in 

 France, but none is so well known as 

 Louis de Vilmorin (1816-1860), the 

 producer of the sugar-beet. Of the 

 three great contributors to the theory 

 of genetics, in nineteenth-century 

 France, de Vilmorin alone did work of 

 great practical importance. Jourdan's 

 study of the nature of species and 

 Naudin's hybridization experiments 

 which so nearly revealed the laws of 

 Mendel, have had great influence; 

 but de Vilmorin, the third of the 

 trio, not only invented the centgener 

 method of breeding, but revolutionized 

 the sugar industry. His achievement 

 is one of the stock examples in text- 

 books of plant-breeding. Starting with 

 a sweet yellow beet from Germany, he 

 analyzed many roots, selected those 

 which had the highest sugar content 

 (from 10% to 12%), and planted 

 separately the seeds borne on each root. 

 From the rows which produced the best 

 yield, he again selected the roots with 

 highest sugar content, and so continued 

 until he had raised the average yield 

 to about 18%, a figure which has hardly 

 been surpassed since his time. By 

 growing this strain of beets, continental 

 Europe was able to make sugar in 

 competition with the cane-growing coun- 

 tries of the tropics. 



Louis de Vilmorin was succeeded as 

 head of the family and of the business 

 by his son Henri, who made many 

 contributions to the study of heredity, 

 his work on wheat and potatoes being 

 best known. He died in 1899,* when 

 Philippe de Vilmorin, whose death has 

 just been announced, succeeded him. 

 By this time the large family had 

 become one of the most important in 

 France, scientifically, financially, and 

 socially, and PhiHppe's position as head 

 of it carried a prestige which can 

 hardly be understood in the United 

 States. The business had also reached 



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