JEAN MAECHANT; AN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

 MUTATIONIST 1 



DR. HENRI BJJi 



Jean Marchant was the son of Nicholas Marchant 

 (died, Paris, 1678), director of the Jardin du Roi, the 

 principal author of the famous "Memoires pour servir a 

 l'histoire des Plantes," published in 1676 under the aus- 

 pices of l'Academie royale des Sciences and edited by 

 Dodart. 2 



The name Marchant is perhaps most familiar in con- 

 nection with the genus Marchantia, which, though not 

 unfrequently attributed to Linnaeus, was named by Jean 

 Marchant in honor of his father, 3 when, because of his 

 discovery of the " flower" and " seeds," he removed it 

 from the genus Lichen, under which it formerly had fig- 

 ured as Lichen petrceus stellatus. 4 



'Contribution from the Botanical Laboratory of the University of 



Sciences, Dodart et les deux Marchant," Bull. Soc. hot. France, 35: 285, 

 1888. In this paper Clos goes to great length in a successful attempt to 



referred to, though a simple reference to a statement on the part of the 

 academy and which curiously enough seems to have escaped him, would at 



des Sciences," publiee par son ordre, 1: 200, 1666-1698, 1778, one reads: 

 "Marchant [M. Nicholas] a fourni tout le Botanique des Memoires pour 

 servir a l'Histoire des Plantes. T. 4, p. 122." 



'Marchant, J., "Nouvelle decouverte des fleurs et des graines d'une 

 plante rangee par les botanistes sous le genre du Lichen," Mem. de I' Acad, 

 roy. d. Sc., 1713, pp. 229-234. "Nous efablirons pour cette plante un 

 nouveau genre que nous appellerons Marchantia du nom de feu M. Marchant, 



dans cette Academie, lorsque le Roy en 1666 crea cette Compagnie." 

 * Caspar Bauhin, Pin. 362. 



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