Marie Maxime Cornu (July 16, 1843, in

Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and 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 ...

and

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their taxonomy, genetics, biochemical properties, and use by humans. Fungi can be a source of tinder, food, traditional medicine, as well as entheogens, poison, and ...

. He was a younger brother of

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

Alfred Cornu Marie Alfred Cornu (; 6 March 1841 – 12 April 1902) was a French physicist and professor of École polytechnique. The French generally refer to him as Alfred Cornu. The Cornu spiral, a graphical device for the computation of light intensities in ...

(1841–1902). He studied at the

École normale supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

, and in 1872 received his doctorate in natural sciences. He served as ''aide-naturaliste'' at

Museum 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 ...

in Paris, where from 1876 he worked as a lecturer of botany.Marie Maxime
Sociétés savantes de France From 1883 to 1901 he was chair of

horticulture Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

at the museum. In 1897 he was named 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 ...

. He is remembered for his research of

cryptogams A cryptogam (scientific name ''Cryptogamae'') is a plant, in the broad sense of the word, or a plant-like organism that share similar characteristics, such as being Multicellular organism, multicellular, Photosynthesis, photosynthetic, and pr ...

, as well as his investigations involving agents of plant diseases, in particular ''

Phylloxera vastatrix Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belongs to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs); origina ...

'', a pest that caused extensive damage to French

vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

s and negatively affected

wine production Wine is an alcoholic drink made from fermented fruit. Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made from grapes, and the term "wine" generally refers ...

. In 1896 he circumscribed the botanical genus ''

Schoenlandia ''Cyanastrum'' is a genus of plants in the family Tecophilaeaceae, native to tropical Africa. It contains three currently recognized species. Description ''Cyanastrum'' has a corm that lacks a protective tunic. The leaf and the inflorescence eme ...

'' (family

Tecophilaeaceae Tecophilaeaceae is a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots. It consists of nine genera with a total of 27 species. The family has only recently been recognized by taxonomists. The APG IV system of 2016 (u ...

). He is buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery (Division 20), in Paris.

Selected publications

* ''Monographie des Saprolégniées'' 1872 – Monograph on

Saprolegniaceae Saprolegniaceae is a Family (biology), family of water mould, freshwater mould. James Ellis Humphrey (1861-1897), an American mycologist did significant work on this family. Taxonomy Saprolegniaceae contains the following genera, species, and su ...

.Cornu, Maxime (1843-1901)
IdRef / SUDOC * ''Études sur la nouvelle maladie de la vigne'', 1875 – Studies on a new disease of the vine. * ''Études sur le phylloxera vastatrix'', 1878 – Studies on ''Phylloxera vastatrix''.

References

Psyche- Journal of Entomology, Nervous System and Salivary Glands of Phylloxera
19th-century French botanists French mycologists Scientists from Orléans 1843 births 1901 deaths {{Mycologist-stub

Selected publications

See also

References