Ambroise-Marie-François-Joseph PALISOT DE BEAUVOIS (1752-182 - Lot 42

Lot 42
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Ambroise-Marie-François-Joseph PALISOT DE BEAUVOIS (1752-182 - Lot 42
Ambroise-Marie-François-Joseph PALISOT DE BEAUVOIS (1752-1820), naturalist, specialist in cryptogams; he was particularly interested in the reproductive organs of mosses, whose functioning he described. Autograph manuscript, 10 pp. in-4, circa 1810-1820. In fine handwriting, very difficult to read. Discovery of the sexual system of mosses. A very interesting manuscript divided into two chapters. First, after recalling the system developed by Johann Jacob Dellinius in the early 18th century, and then by Linnaeus and other great botanists who followed them, he discusses his discovery of the sexual system of mosses. "The son of the great Linnaeus, after reading my discovery of the sexual parts of mosses, including the male, endeavored to apply this method closely to mosses, but not as successfully as I would have wished. He kept all the genera of his immortal father, leaving the Sphagius genera intact [...]. For the rest, he made both happy and unhappy transpositions into other genera. He left the males uncertain and established for the female a straight, oval capsule with a naked orifice [...]. The males of these mosses bear discs that are quite conspicuous for the size of these plants. The Pyriforme does not have such a small Calyptra, but it is quite similar [...]. It gives mosses male flowers in a rosette or caputule [...]". In a second chapter, he develops the "Basis of the division of mosses into more certain genera", which ends with a "synoptic methodical table". "According to the reasons stated above, the genera of mosses are divided as follows [...]".
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