Tournefort

Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de

ACHIEVEMENT(S): Plant classification.

NICKNAME/ALIAS: None

DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: 5 June 1656, at Aix-en-Provence, France

DATE/PLACE/AGE AT DEATH: 28 December 1708, in Paris, France. Aged 52

DISCIPLINE: Botanist

FIELD: Botany

LANGUAGE: French

PARENTS: Pierre Pitton (d. 1677) and Aimare de Fagoue

SIBLINGS: One brother and seven sisters

SPOUSE: None

CHILDREN: None

EDUCATION: Jesuit college, Aix-en-Provence, 1662-72; Jesuit Seminary, Aix,

1672-77; University of Montpellier, 1677-83

MAJOR WORK: 'Elements de botanique', 1694

LIFE AND TIMES:

At the age of 21, Tournefort entered the University of Montpellier, where for the next six years he attended courses in chemistry, medicine and botany (taught by Magnol* ) during the winter months. During the summer months each year, Tournefort travelled through the countryside and mountains of the Alps, the Midi, the Pyrenees, and Spain observing and collecting plants. Having passed his medical exams, Tournefort worked as a physician and continued his botanical studies.

In 1683, Tournefort was appointed as professor of botany and director of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, a position he would hold until his death. This job required him not only to teach botany but also to expand and improve the collection of live plants in the garden, and each year between 1685 and 1689 he went on long herborizing expeditions in the

south, and to Holland, England, Spain and Portugal.

In 1689 he published an edition of his lecture notes entitled 'Schola botanica' (1689), prepared by one of his English students, William Sherard. By this time he was already one of Europe's most noted botanists, and was in regular correspondence with many of his peers, including Magnol at Montpellier, and Sloane* and corresponded with> Ray* in England.

In 1694 Tournefort published his most important work, 'Elements de botanique', based on his collections of plant species, which appeared in three volumes, two of which consisted of 451 plates by the artist Claude Aubriet. The 'Elements' was then followed by a defence of his system entitled, 'De optima methode instituenda in re herbaria' (1697), and by his

'Histoire des plantes qui naissent aux environs de Paris' (1698), an English translation of which appeared in 1732.

The 'Elements' was translated into Latin as 'Institutiones rei herbariae', with 476 plates, in 1700, and in 1719 a new edition was produced with a lengthy appendix provided by the botanist Antoine de Jussieu*, who had succeeded Tournefort as director of the Jardin des Plantes.

In his 'Elements de botanique' Tournefort developed a system of classifying plants based upon the structure of the flower and the fruit, chiefly the corolla, which found favour with Linneaus* and was generally accepted by botanists up until about 1750. Of permanent importance, however, is the clear distinction Tournefort made between genus (which he called a "cluster of species" - a natural grouping that was identifiable, with a real existence independent of the observer) and species.

Tournefort excelled in observation and description, and his generic descriptions were largely retained by the leading taxonomists of the 18th century. He was less innovative in theory, refusing to use a microscope and denying the sexuality of plants, so the classifications he proposed above the level of the genus were often criticized severely by other botanists.

However, his use of a single Latin name for the genus, followed by a few descriptive words for the species was taken up and elaborated in the work of Linneaus during the 18th century.

In 1698 Tournefort finally qualified as a doctor of medicine and, having established a large practice, was admitted as a professor of medicine at the College de France in 1702. From 1700 to 1702, Tournefort made an extensive tour through Greece and Turkey, during which he collected 1,356 species of plants.

Tournefort died suddenly in 1708 in Paris, France, at the age of 52.

ASSESSMENT: His definitions of the genera of plants were of fundamental importance to Linneaus.

EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None

ONELINER: J de Tournefort, early plant classifier

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

EB, DSB