Matthieu Bonafous (7 March 1793 – 22 March 1852) was a French botanist born in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

Early life

Matthieu Bonafous was born on March 7, 1793, in Lyon, France.Christie's: MATHIEU BONAFOUS (1793–1852)
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Career

Bonafous wrote , a monograph about

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn ( North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. ...

, in 1836. In it, he showed that corn was able to adapt to hostile weather conditions.Betty Harper Fussell, ''The Story of Corn'', Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 1992, p. 9

/ref> For example, it could grow in sand (as in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

), in humid climate (like Colombia) or in cold weather (like the

Apennine Mountains The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...

). He also wrote about mulberry trees and their use for raising

silkworm The domestic silk moth (''Bombyx mori''), is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of '' Bombyx mandarina'', the wild silk moth. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of a silk moth. It is an economically ...

s in (1822) and (1840). The plant '' Bonafousia'' was named after him.''CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: Common Names, Scientific Names, Eponyms, Synonyms, and Etymology'', CRC Press, 1999, Volume 1, p. 32

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Death

He died on March 23, 1852.

Other works

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References

1793 births 1852 deaths Scientists from Lyon 19th-century French botanists Agricultural writers {{France-botanist-stub