Charles-François Brisseau de Mirbel

Charles François de Brisseau Mirbel ( born March 27, 1776 in Paris, † September 12, 1854 in Cham Perret, Paris) was a French botanist. He was one of the first plants anatomists and physiologists. The plant genus Mirbelia from the legume family ( Fabaceae ) is named after him. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Mirb. ".

Life

At the age of 20 years was Mirbel assistant at the Natural History Museum in Paris. There he began with the microscopic examination of plant tissue. With the first edition of his Traité d' anatomie et de physiology végétale 1802 he established himself as one of the French founders of the cell theory and plant physiology. He postulated that all plant tissue build up from parenchyma. His 1809 published observation that each plant cell is surrounded by a continuous biomembrane, today is his principal contribution to cytology. 1803 Mirbel was hired as superintendent in the garden of the Empress Josephine at Malmaison. Here he completed his studies of plant tissues and the development of plant organs. He described where the liverwort genus Marchantia. In 1808 he was inducted into the French Academy of Sciences and was appointed professor of botany at the Sorbonne. After the fall of Napoleon Mirbel became head of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. 1837 elected him to the Royal Society in London for foreign members.

Works

• Histoire naturelle, générale et de plantes particulière, 1802-1806
• Exposition de la théorie de l' organization végétale, 1809
• Traité d' anatomie et de physiology végétale, 1813
• Éléments de physiology végétale et de botanique, 1815
• Notes sur l' embryogénie of Pinus sylvestris Laricio et, of Thuya orientalis et occidentales et du Taxus baccata (together with Édouard Spach ) - Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 1843
• Organography et physiology végétale, 1849

Swell

• Robert Zander, Fritz Encke, Günther Buchheim, Siegmund Seybold (eds.): Handbook of Plant Names. 13th edition. Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8001-5042-5.