François Richard de Tussac
François Richard de Tussac aka Chevalier de Tussac (1751 Poitou – 1837), was a French botanist and naturalist from a wealthy family with colonial holdings, and is noted for his four-volume Flore des Antilles, ou Histoire générale botanique, rurale et économique des végétaux indigènes des Antilles, published in Paris by F. Schoell et Hautel, and one of the earliest floras of the West Indies. He became senator for Guadeloupe in the Antilles and traveled widely through St. Domingue, Jamaica and Cuba. In his book Cri des Colons (Cry of the Colonies) he opposed giving Blacks more legal rights.[1][2]
De Tussac moved to Martinique in 1786 and spent some years collecting plants on the island, later becoming curator of a botanic garden in Haiti. He left Haiti in 1802, visited Jamaica and then returned to France, becoming in 1816 director of the Jardin Botanique d'Angers in Paris, a post that he filled until 1826. Flore des Antilles appeared from 1808 to 1827. Some 2000 of Tussac's drawings made in Martinique were destroyed by fire in 1802 with the Haitian Revolution. De Tussac's herbarium was saved as were his manuscripts, although their whereabouts are unknown.[3]
De Tussac is denoted by the author abbreviation Tussac when citing a botanical name.[4] and is commemorated by the tree fern Alsophila tussacii (Desv.) D.S. Conant.
References[edit]
- ^ http://www.honorine.info/issuuchapters/Ch2.pdf[permanent dead link]
- ^ "TUSSAC, François Richard de (1751–1837). Flore des Antilles, ou histoire générale botanique, rurale et economique des végétaux indigènes des Antilles. Paris: chez l'auteur, F. Schoell et Hautel, 1808–1827[-1828]".
- ^ "Tussac, François Richard de (1751–1837)". JSTOR.
- ^ Brummitt, R. K.; C. E. Powell (1992). Authors of Plant Names. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ISBN 1-84246-085-4.
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- 1751 births
- 1834 deaths
- People from Poitou-Charentes
- People from Saint-Domingue
- 18th-century French botanists
- 19th-century French botanists
- Botanists active in North America
- Botanists active in the Caribbean
- 18th-century French historians
- 19th-century French historians
- 18th-century French physicians
- 19th-century French physicians
- French male non-fiction writers
- French botanist stubs