BOTANY 



French botanists have been conspicuous chiefly in 

 the development of Taxonomy and Palaeobotany. 



The first great name in the history of classification is 

 that of TOURNEFORT (1656-1 708), Professor at the Royal 

 Gardens in Paris. He was the founder of genera; that is, 

 he was the first who organized groups of species into the 

 next higher category of classification. Later Antoine 

 DE JUSSIEU, Director of the Museum of Natural History 

 in Paris, published the first natural system of classifica- 

 tion in his "Genera Plantarum" (1789), in which he 

 first established the category of classification known as 

 families, which are natural groups of genera. Then 

 Auguste DE CANDOLLE, first of Paris and later of Geneva, 

 first grouped families into orders, the next higher cate- 

 gory of classification, and established a sequence of 

 families long used in all manuals of botany. 



As a consequence of this early work in classification, 

 the Herbarium of the Jardin des Plantes contains more 

 of the early "types" of North American plants than 

 any other European collection, and must always be 

 consulted in any monographic work. 



One of the outstanding names in the history of French 

 botany is that of LAMARCK (1744-1829), who for twenty- 

 five years was Director of the Royal Gardens, to which 

 he gave the name "Jardin des Plantes," which has been 

 used ever since. He was the author of the first "Flora of 

 France," the pioneer manual of French botany. It was 



1 [Drafting Committee: J. M. COULTER, University of Chicago. 

 ED.] 



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