Bernard de Jussieu | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1699-08-17)17 August 1699 |
| Died | 6 November 1777(1777-11-06) (aged 78) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Natural History |
Bernard de Jussieu (French pronunciation:[bɛʁnaʁdəʒysjø]; 17 August 1699 – 6 November 1777) was a Frenchnaturalist, younger brother ofAntoine de Jussieu.
Bernard de Jussieu was born inLyon. He took amedical degree atMontpellier and began practice in 1720,[1] but finding the work uncongenial he gladly accepted his brother's invitation toParis in 1722, when he succeededSebastien Vaillant (1669–1722) as sub-demonstrator of plants in theJardin des Plantes.[2] In 1725, he brought out a new edition ofJoseph Pitton de Tournefort'sHistoire des plantes qui naissent aux environs de Paris, 2 vols., which was afterwards translated into English byJohn Martyn, the original work being incomplete. In the same year he was admitted into theFrench Academy of Sciences, and communicated several papers to that body.[3]
Long beforeAbraham Trembley (1700–1784) published hisHistoire des polypes d'eau douce, Jussieu maintained the doctrine that these organisms were in fact animals, and not the flowers of marine plants, which was the notion at the time; to confirm his views, he made three journeys to the coast ofNormandy. Singularly modest and retiring, he published very little, but in 1759 he arranged the plants in the royal garden of theGrand Trianon in thePalace of Versailles, according to his own scheme of classification. This arrangement is printed in his nephewAntoine Laurent de Jussieu'sGenera plantarum, and formed the basis of that work. He cared little for the credit of enunciating new discoveries, so long as the facts were made public. On the death of his brother Antoine, he could not be induced to succeed him as professor of botany at theJardin des Plantes, but prevailed uponL. G. Lemonnier to assume the higher position.[3]
He was elected a foreign member of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1749.
The standardbotanical author abbreviationB.Juss. is applied toplants described by de Jussieu.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Jussieu, De, s.v. Bernard de Jussieu".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 593–594.