Antoine Laurent de Jussieu

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu
Born	12 April 1748 Lyon, France
Died	17 September 1836 (aged 88)
Residence	France
Nationality	France
Fields	Botany
Institutions	Jardin des Plantes
Known for	Classification of flowering plants
Author abbrev. (botany)	Juss.

Bust of Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu by David d'Angers (1837).

Medallion of Jussieu by David d'Angers

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (12 April 1748 – 17 September 1836) was a French botanist, notable as the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants; much of his system remains in use today. His classification was based on and extended unpublished work by his uncle, the botanist Bernard de Jussieu.

Life

Jussieu was born in Lyon. He went to Paris to study medicine, graduating in 1770. He was professor of botany at the Jardin des Plantes from 1770 to 1826. His son Adrien-Henri also became a botanist.

In his study of flowering plants, Genera plantarum (1789), Jussieu adopted a methodology based on the use of multiple characters to define groups, an idea derived from Scottish-French naturalist Michel Adanson. This was a significant improvement over the "artificial" system of Linnaeus, whose most popular work classified plants into classes and orders based on the number of stamens and pistils. Jussieu did keep Linnaeus' binomial nomenclature, resulting in a work that was far-reaching in its impact; many of the present-day plant families are still attributed to Jussieu. Morton's 1981 History of botanical science counts 76 of Jussieu's families conserved in the ICBN, versus just 11 for Linnaeus, for instance. Writing of the natural system, Sydney Howard Vines remarked

"The glory of this crowning achievement belongs to Jussieu: he was the capable man who appeared precisely at the psychological moment, and it is the men that so appear who have made, and will continue to make, all the great generalisations of science."^[1]

In 1788, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge, Les Neuf Sœurs.

Published works

• Jussieu, Antoine Laurent de (1789). Genera plantarum : secundum ordines naturales disposita, juxta methodum in Horto regio parisiensi exaratam, anno M.DCC.LXXIV. Paris. OCLC 5161409. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
• Jussieu, Antoine Laurent de. Opuscules de botanique. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
• Principes de la méthode naturelle des végétaux. París, 1824.
• 1770 : An aeconomiam animalem inter et vegetalem analogiae ou Comparaison de la structure et des fonctions des organes végétaux avec les phénomènes de la vie animale (Thèse défendue devant la faculté de médecine de Paris)
• 1773 : Mémoire sur la famille des renonculacées In: Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences. Année 1773. Paris 1777, p. 214–240.
• 1774 : Exposition d'un nouvel ordre de plantes adopté dans les démonstrations du Jardin royal In: Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences. Année 1774. Paris 1777, p. 175–197.
• Examen de la famille des Renoncules. In: Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences. Année 1773. Paris 1777, pp. 214–240

Legacy

The system of suprageneric nomenclature in botany is officially dated to 4 Aug 1789 with the publication of the Genera Plantarum (Gen. Pl.).^[2]

See also

De Jussieu system

References

1. Vines, Sydney Howard (1913). "Robert Morison 1620—1683 and John Ray 1627—1705". In Oliver, Francis Wall. Makers of British botany. Cambridge University Press. pp. 8–43.
2. Meerow et al. 2007.
3. "Author Query for 'Juss.'". International Plant Names Index.

Bibliography

• Stevens, Peter Francis (2013). The Development of Biological Systematics: Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu, Nature, and the Natural System. Columbia University Press, 2013. ISBN 0231515081. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
• Meerow, Alan W.; Reveal, James L.; Snijman, Deirdre A.; Dutilh, Julie H. (November 2007). "(1793) Proposal to conserve the name Amaryllidaceae against Alliaceae, a "superconservation" proposal". Taxon 56 (4): 1299–1300. doi:10.2307/25065925. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
• Duane Isely, One hundred and one botanists (Iowa State University Press, 1994), pp. 118–120
•  "De Jussieu". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "De Jussieu". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

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