Auguste Plée, born 1787 in Paris and died 17 August 1825 in Fort Royal,

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

, was a French

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

Biography

Between 1821 and 1823 he was sketching military installations, ports and towns in

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 ...

. (in Spanish). After travelling extensively, and forming numerous collections of plants, he fell sick and died in

Legacy

Four

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of Caribbean reptiles are named in honor of Plée: '' Diploglossus pleii'', '' Gymnophthalmus pleii'', '' Mastigodryas pleei'', and '' Pholidoscelis plei''.

Writings

His principal works were: ''Le jeune botaniste, ou entretiens d'un père avec son fils sur la botanique et la physiologie végétale, etc.''; (2 vols., Paris, 1812), and ''Journal de Voyage du Botaniste Auguste Plée, a Travers les Antilles, les Guyanes et le Bresil'' (2 vols., Paris, 1828). The ''

Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...

'' (MNHN) in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

published a catalog of Plée's collection in three volumes in 1830.''Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique'' (1957)
''Les Botanistes Française en Amérique du Nord Avant 1850: Paris 11-14 Septembre 1956''
''Centre national de la recherche scientifique''. p. 193. (in French).

Biography

Legacy

Writings

References

Further reading