Auguste Jean Baptiste Chevalier (June 1873, in Domfront – June 1956, in Paris) was a French

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the science, scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxon, taxa (si ...

, and explorer of tropical

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, especially of

French colonial empire The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas Colony, colonies, protectorates, and League of Nations mandate, mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "Firs ...

in Africa that included

Côte d'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest city and ...

. He also explored and collected plants in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

and

tropical Asia Tropical Asia refers to the entirety of the areas in Asia with a tropical climate. These areas are of geographic and economic importance due to their natural resources and biodiversity, which include many species of agricultural value. There are 16 ...

. Chevalier was a prolific contributor to the knowledge of African plants, studying forest trees and their woods,

grasses Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in ...

, and agricultural plants of the continent. Unlike other botanists who studied the plants of tropical Africa, Chevalier also ranged to the floral regions of the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

. In 1896, he obtained his degree in

natural sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

and in 1901 his phD from the

University of Lille The University of Lille (, abbreviated as ULille, UDL or univ-lille) is a French public research university based in Lille, Hauts-de-France. It has its origins in the University of Douai (1559), and resulted from the merger of three universities ...

.Prosopo
Sociétés savantesJSTOR Global Plants
(biography) At

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

he worked as an assistant to botanist

Charles Eugene Bertrand Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...

(1851-1917). In 1899–1900, he took part in a scientific mission in

French Sudan French Sudan (; ') was a French colonial territory in the Federation of French West Africa from around 1880 until 1959, when it joined the Mali Federation, and then in 1960, when it became the independent state of Mali. The colony was formall ...

, and in 1905 established a

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

Dalaba Dalaba ( Pular : 𞤁𞤢𞤤𞤢𞤦𞤢𞥄) is a town and sub-prefecture in the Dalaba Prefecture in the Mamou Region of Guinea. It was once home to a sanatorium, and to Miriam Makeba, who last visited the town in 1988, when she came to s ...

French Guinea French Guinea () was a French colonial possession in West Africa. Its borders, while changed over time, were in 1958 those of the current independent nation of Guinea. French Guinea was established by France in 1891, within the same borders as ...

. From 1913 to 1919, he collected plants throughout

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

. Later, he attained a professorship in Paris (1929).BNF.fr
Auguste Chevalier (1873-1956) In 1937, he was elected as a member of the

Académie des sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

, serving as its president in 1953. He was also a member of the

Académie des sciences d'outre-mer Académie des sciences d'outre-mer (formerly ) is a learned society created in 1922 whose field of activity is mainly geography and general history in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Oceania. Its headquarters are located in the 16th arrondissement ...

(from 1922), president of the ''

Société botanique de France The Société botanique de France (SBF) is a French learned society founded on 23 April 1854. At its inaugural meeting it stated its purpose as "to contribute to the progress of botany and related sciences and to facilitate, by all means at its di ...

'' (1929), vice-president of the ''Comité national de géographie'' (1935-1952) and a member of the ''Académie d'agriculture de France'' (from 1937). He was elected a Foreign Member of the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript a ...

. In 1921, he founded the journal, ''Revue de Botanique appliquée et d'Agriculture coloniale''. The botanical genera ''

Chevalierella ''Chevalierella'' is a genus of African plants in the grass family. The only known species is ''Chevalierella dewildemanii'', native to Republic of Congo and to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Sita, P. & Moutsambote, J.-M. (2005). Catalog ...

'', ''Chevalierodendron'', '' Neochevaliera'' and ''

Neochevalierodendron ''Neochevalierodendron'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It belongs to the subfamily Detarioideae. It contains a single species, ''Neochevalierodendron stephanii''. * References

Detarioideae Monotypic Fabaceae gen ...

'' are named in his honor.

Selected writings

* ''Sur l'existence probable d'une mer récente dans la région de Tombouctou'', 1901 - On the probable existence of a recent sea in the region of

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; ; Koyra Chiini: ; ) is an ancient city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. It is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali, having a population of 32,460 in the 2018 census. ...

. * ''Rapport sur une mission scientifique et économique au Chari-lac-Tchad'', 1905 - Report on a scientific and economic mission involving the Chari-

Lake Chad Lake Chad (, Kanuri language, Kanuri: ''Sádǝ'', ) is an endorheic freshwater lake located at the junction of four countries: Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, in western and central Africa respectively, with a catchment area in excess of . ...

. * ''La forêt vierge de la Côte d'Ivoire'', 1908 - The virgin forest of the

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

. * ''Mission Chari-Lac Tchad, 1902-1904: L'Afrique Centrale Française'', 1908 - Chari-Lake Chad mission (1902–04); French central Africa. * ''Le Pays des Hollis et les régions voisines: Mission scientifique de l'Afrique occidentale française'', 1910 - The country of Hollis and neighboring regions; scientific mission to

French West Africa French West Africa (, ) was a federation of eight French colonial empires#Second French colonial empire, French colonial territories in West Africa: Colonial Mauritania, Mauritania, French Senegal, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guin ...

. * ''La forét et les bois du Gabon'', 1917 - The forest and wood of

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

. * ''La forêt du Brésil'', 1929 - The forest of

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. * ''Les iles du Cap Vert : flore de l'Archipel'', 1935 - The islands of

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

; flora of the archipelago. * ''L'agriculture coloniale : origines et évolutions'', 1949 - Colonial agriculture, origins and evolutions. * ''Octave Lignier, professeur de botanique à la Faculté des sciences de l'Université de Caen... (1855-1916). Notice biographique'' – Biography of

Octave Lignier Élie Antoine Octave Lignier (25 February 1855, in Pougy – 19 March 1916, in Caen) was a French botanist, known for his work in the field of paleobotany. From 1880 to 1887 he worked as assistant to Charles Eugène Bertrand at the University of Li ...

.Octave Lignier, professeur de botanique à la Faculté des sciences de l'Université de Caen
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References

External links

IPNI
List of plants described and co-described by Chevalier. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chevalier, Auguste Jean Baptiste 1873 births 1956 deaths People from Domfront en Poiraie 20th-century French botanists Botanists with author abbreviations Members of the French Academy of Sciences