Pierre Magnol

Pierre Magnol ( born June 8, 1638 Montpellier, † May 21, 1715 same place ) was a French botanist. He created the concept of family in the biological system and is considered the forerunner of Linnaeus. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Magnol ".

Life

Pierre Magnol grew up in his native town and remained for most of his life there. He was brought up in a religious family of pharmacists in size and in the tradition of Calvinism. His father and grandfather Jean Claude Magnol had been pharmacists. The maternal grandfather was a doctor. While the eldest brother Cesar took over his father's pharmacy, Pierre Magnol wanted to be a doctor. That's why he took on May 19, 1655 to study medicine and botany at the university of his native city. He graduated in January 1659 with a doctorate and immediately turned to botany. After studying under Magnol took several trips through the Languedoc, Provence, the Alps and the Pyrenees, to expand his botanical knowledge through their own intuition.

Because of his religious beliefs his professional advancement was obstructed. As in Montpellier in 1664 the post of demonstrator should be occupied for plants, Magnol was passed over, as with a professor of medicine, which was to be occupied in 1667. Therefore, he converted to Catholicism in 1685.

In 1694 he became professor of medicine and botany, and in 1696 the line of the Royal Botanical Gardens in his hometown. Magnol became one of the founding fathers of the Société Royale des Sciences de Montpellier ( 1706) and also in 1709 for a short time a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences. He grouped the plants according to their morphological characteristics and re- entered into a lively exchange of important botanists of his time, so among other things, to John Ray, William Sherard and James Petiver (England ), Paul Hermann and Peter Houttuyn (Leiden ), Jan Commelin (Amsterdam ), JH Lavater ( Zurich ) and J. Salvador ( Barcelona).

Among his students were the brothers Antoine and Bernard de Jussieu included.

Ehrentaxon

Charles Plumier named in his honor, the genus Magnolia of the plant family of the magnolia family ( Magnoliaceae ). Linnaeus later took the name.

Works

• Botanicum Monspeliense, sive Plantarum circa Monspelium nascentium index. (Lyon, 1676 )
• Botanicum Monspeliense, sive Plantarum circa Monspelium nascentium index. Adduntur variarum plantarum descriptiones et icones. Cum appendice quae plantas de novo repertas continet et errata emendat. (Montpellier, 1686)
• Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, in quo familiae plantarum by tabulas disponuntur. (Montpellier, 1689)
• Hortus regius Monspeliense, sive Catalogus plantarum quae in Horto Regio Monspeliensi demonstrantur. (Montpellier, 1697 )
• Novus caracter [sic ] plantarum, in duo tractatus divisus: primus, de Herbis & subfructibus, secundus, de fructibus & arboribus. (Montpellier, 1720 ) - published posthumously by his son Antoine Magnol ( 1676-1759 ).