Gustave Prosper Vidal (1835 – 21 September 1905,

Plascassier Plascassier is located between Valbonne (2.8 km) and Grasse (7 km) and only 31 km away from Nice airport. Although bordered by several communes— Valbonne, Opio, Mouans-Sartoux and Châteauneuf-de-Grasse—it falls under the ju ...

) was a French botanist. His botanical specimens were collected entirely in France. Vidal was employed as a French civil servant collecting taxes for the ''Administration des Contributions directes''. He was promoted to the rank of ''Inspecteur'', working in

Privas Privas (; , also ) is a city located in France, in the department of Ardèche. With its 8,465 inhabitants (2019), it is the least populated prefecture (capital of a department). It was the location of the 1629 Siege of Privas. Today, Priv ...

with considerable distinction. But, as soon as his years of service gave him the right to retire, he retired in order to collect plants and study botany. From 1884 until his death in 1905 he was a member 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 ...

''. In retirement he first lived in

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Charles Flahault Charles Henri Marie Flahault (3 October 18523 February 1935) was a French botanist, among the early pioneers of phytogeography, phytosociology, and forest ecology. The word '' relevé'' for a plant community sample is his invention. Early life an ...

, Julien Foucaud, Antoine Le Grand (1839–1905), and

Casimir Arvet-Touvet Jean-Maurice Casimir Arvet-Touvet (1841–1913) was a French botanist born in Gières. His early botanical investigations involved species native to Dauphiné, publishing in 1871 ''Essai sur les plantes du Dauphiné''. Subsequently, he devoted hi ...

. In his last years, Vidal worked closely with Ludovic Legré (1838–1904). These two botanists gathered materials for the publication of a flora of

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

but the work was not ready for publication when they died. Vidal greatly contributed to the knowledge of the flora of the Maritime Alps through his numerous collections and distributions of plants from this region. He also took an active part in the organization of the ''Société Botanique de Frances

Barcelonnette Barcelonnette (; , also ; obsolete ) is a Communes of France, commune of France and a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture in the Departments of France, department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. It is l ...

session. Upon his death at age 70, Vidal's will endowed the City of Nice with the valuable collections of his library and herbarium, together with the money necessary for their installation and maintenance. He also left a generous sum of money to the ''Société Botanique de France''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vidal, Gustave Prosper 20th-century French botanists 1835 births 1905 deaths