René Viguier (19 May 1880, in Paris – 17 January 1931, in

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

) 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 ...

known for his investigations of plants within the family

Araliaceae The Araliaceae are a family of flowering plants composed of about 43 genera and around 1500 species consisting of primarily woody plants and some herbaceous plants commonly called the ginseng family. The morphology of Araliaceae varies widely ...

. He worked as a préparateur at 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 ...

with

Philippe Édouard Léon Van Tieghem Philippe Édouard Léon Van Tieghem (; 19 April 1839 – 28 April 1914) was a French botanist born in Baillleul in the département of Nord. He was one of the best known French botanists of the latter nineteenth century. Life Van Tieghem's ...

, afterwards serving as ''maître de conférences'' at the Sorbonne. In 1912 he collected botanical specimens in

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

with

Jean-Henri Humbert Jean-Henri Humbert (24 January 1887 – 20 October 1967) was a French botanist born in Paris. He studied physics, chemistry and natural sciences in Rennes and Paris, and following a scientific excursion to Madagascar, he worked as a university a ...

. From 1919 to 1931 he was a professor of botany at the

University of Caen The University of Caen Normandy (French: ''Université de Caen Normandie''), also known as Unicaen, is a public university in Caen, France. History The institution was founded in 1432 by John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, the first rector ...

as well as director of city's

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 ...

.Biodiversity Heritage Library
Taxonomic literature : a selective guide to botanical publicationsProsopo
Sociétés savantes de FranceEtymological Dictionary of Succulent Plant Names
by Urs Eggli, Leonard E. Newton 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 ...

(from 1904), the Société linnéenne de Lyon (from 1921) and the Société linnéenne de Normandie (from 1919). In 1927 he founded the ''Archives de botanique''. The

French Academy of 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 ...

awarded him the Prix de Coincy for 1909. The grass genus '' Viguierella'' was named in his honor by

Aimée Antoinette Camus Aimée Antoinette Camus (1 May 1879 – 17 April 1965) was a French botanist. She was best known for her study of orchids and oaks. Camus also has the legacy of authoring the second highest number of land plant species among female scientist ...

(1926). Most plant taxa with the specific epithet of ''viguieri'' are also named after him, an example being the grass species '' Cephalostachyum viguieri''.

Selected works

* ''Recherches anatomiques sur la classification des Araliacées'', 1906 – Anatomical research on the classification of Araliaceae. * ''Contribution à l'étude de la flore de la Nouvelle-Calédonie : Araliacées'', 1913 – Contributions to the study of

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

n flora, Araliaceae. * ''Guttifères nouvelles de Madagascar'', 1914 (with Jean-Henri Humbert) – New

Guttiferae The Clusiaceae or Guttiferae Juss. (1789) (''nom. alt. et cons.'' = alternative and valid name) are a family of plants including 13 genera and ca 750 species. Several former members of Clusiacae are now placed in Calophyllaceae and Hypericaceae ...

of Madagascar.WorldCat Search
publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Viguier, Rene 1880 births 1931 deaths Academic staff of the University of Caen Normandy 20th-century French botanists