Joseph Pitton de Tournefort | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 5 June 1656 |
| Died | 28 December 1708 (aged 52) |
| Alma mater | University of Paris |
| Known for | genus |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | botany |
Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (5 June 1656 – 28 December 1708) was a Frenchbotanist, notable as the first to make a clear definition of the concept ofgenus for plants. BotanistCharles Plumier was his pupil and accompanied him on his voyages.
Tournefort was born inAix-en-Provence and studied at theJesuit convent there. It was intended that he enter theChurch, but the death of his father allowed him to follow his interest in botany. After two years collecting, he studied medicine atMontpellier, but was appointed professor of botany at theJardin des Plantes inParis in 1683. During this time he travelled throughWestern Europe, particularly thePyrenees, where he made extensive collections.[1]
Between 1700 and 1702 he travelled through the islands ofGreece and visitedConstantinople, the borders of theBlack Sea,Armenia, andGeorgia, collecting plants and undertaking other types of observations. He was accompanied by the German botanistAndreas Gundelsheimer (1668–1715), and the artistClaude Aubriet (1651–1742). His description of this journey was published posthumously (Relation d'un voyage du Levant),[1] he himself having been killed by a carriage in Paris; the road on which he died now bears his name (Rue de Tournefort in the5ème arrondissement).
Tournefort's principal work was the 1694Eléments de botanique, ou Méthode pour reconnaître les Plantes (the Latin translation of itInstitutiones rei herbariae was published twice in 1700 and 1719). The principal artist was Claude Aubriet, who later became the principal artist at theJardin des Plantes. The classification followed was completely artificial, and neglected some important divisions established by earlier botanists, such asJohn Ray's separation of thephanerogams from thecryptogams, and his division of the flowering plants intomonocots anddicots. Overall it was a step backwards insystematics, yet the text was so clearly written and well structured, and contained so much valuable information on individual species, that it became popular amongst botanists, and nearly all classifications published for the next fifty years were based upon it.[2]
Tournefort is often credited with being the first to make a clear distinction between genus and species. Though he did indeed cluster the 7,000 plant species that he described into around 700 genera, this was not particularly original. Concepts of genus and species had been framed as early as the 16th century, andKaspar Bauhin in particular consistently distinguished genera and species.Augustus Quirinus Rivinus had even advocated the use ofbinary nomenclature shortly before Tournefort's work was published.[2]
The wordherbarium also seems to have been an invention of Tournefort; previouslyherbaria had been called by a variety of names, such asHortus siccus.
His herbarium collection of 6,963 specimens was housed inParis, inJardin du Roi. It is now part of theMuséum national d'histoire naturelle.[3]
In 1858, botanistGriseb. publishedPittoniotis, a genus offlowering plants from South America, belonging to the familyRubiaceae and named in honour of Joseph Pitton de Tournefort.[4]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 106.
Media related toJoseph Pitton de Tournefort at Wikimedia Commons
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