Adolphe Brongniart

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Adolphe Brongniart.

Adolphe Théodore Brongniart (born January 14, 1801 in Paris , † February 19, 1876 ibid) was a French botanist and phytopalaeontologist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is “ Brongn. ".

Live and act

Adolphe Brongniart was the son of the geologist Alexandre Brongniart and his mother Jeanne Cécile Brongniart (1782-1862), born de Coquebert Montbret. His paternal grandfather was the architect Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart , the entomologist Charles Brongniart his grandson.

From 1822 to 1825 he traveled around the world. From 1827 he studied medicine and botany at the University of Paris . He received his doctorate in 1826 with the work Mémoire sur la famille des Rhamnées , ou, Histoire naturelle et médicale des genres qui composent ce groupe de plantes . Then Brongniart was a teacher at the medical faculty at the Sorbonne . In 1833 he became professor of botany and physiology of plants at the Jardin des Plantes . Since December 1829 he was a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg . In 1834 he became a member of the French Academy of Sciences , in 1841 a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , in 1852 General Inspector of the Natural Science Faculties in France, in 1860 a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and in 1866 a member of the Imperial Council for Public Education. Brongniart's work on the relationship between extinct and surviving plants has earned him the reputation of being the father of paleobotany .

As early as 1821 he published an attempt to classify prehistoric plants, which he followed up with a Prodrome d'une histoire des végétaux fossiles (1828). His main work is the Histoire des végétaux fossiles, ou recherches botaniques et géologiques sur les végétaux renfermés dans les diverses couches du globe (1828–1847, 2 volumes), in which he systematically compiles all the species known to him and his views on their successions in delivered to prehistoric periods. This is followed by the chronological overview of the vegetation periods and the various flora in their sequence on the earth's surface .

As a plant physiologist, he tried to answer the question of the process of sexual procreation and compared the protoplasmic grains of the pollen grain with the spermatozoa of animals. In addition, Brongniart was active as a systematic. Brongniart was a member of the editorial team of the botanical journal Flore des serres et des jardins de l'Europe published by Louis van Houtte and later founded the Annales des Sciences Naturelles and, in 1854, the Société botanique de France together with his two brothers-in-law, Victor Audouin and Jean-Baptiste Dumas whose first president he became.

In 1841 he was awarded the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London for his achievement .

Taxa named after Brongniart

The plant genera Brongniartia Kunth from the legume family (Fabaceae) and Brongniartikentia Becc. from the palm family (Arecaceae) have been named in his honor. Also Brongniartella Bory , a genus of algae was named after him. He is also the first to describe the sweet grass Anomochloa marantoidea .

Fonts (selection)

  • Report on the progress of the botanique phytographique . 1868 ( online ),

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724: Brongniart, Adolphe Théodore. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed September 28, 2019 (in Russian).
  2. ^ Member entry by Adolphe Brongniart (with picture) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on February 7, 2016.
  3. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 50.
  4. ^ Wilhelm Neubert: Van Houtte's price list and his Flore des Serres et des Jardins de L'Europe. In: German magazine for garden and flower science - magazine for garden and flower friends, and gardeners. Volume 6, Hoffmann'sche Verlags-Buchhandlung, Stuttgart 1853, p. 369
  5. ↑ a b Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymic plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]
personal data
SURNAME Brongniart, Adolphe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brongniart, Adolphe Théodore
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French botanist and phytopalaeontologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1801
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH February 19, 1876
Place of death Paris