Edouard BORNET (1828-1911), botanist and cryptogamist, presi - Lot 80

Lot 80
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Result : 2 800EUR
Edouard BORNET (1828-1911), botanist and cryptogamist, presi - Lot 80
Edouard BORNET (1828-1911), botanist and cryptogamist, president of the Société Botanique de France; he determined the nature of lichens and described the reproduction process of red algae. Member of the Académie des Sciences, the Royal Society, and winner of the Linnaean Medal in 1891. He collected a large number of samples, now in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. He devoted himself to remarkable botanical research, alone or in the company of Gustave Thuret, with whom he collaborated for 23 years in a garden in Antibes, the "Villa Thuret". 25 autograph letters signed to Honoré Ardoïno. 96 pp. in-8 and in-12. Antibes and Nice, 1862-1868. Exciting and very long correspondence devoted entirely to the botany of the Alpes-Maritimes and Provence, and in particular to his work at the Villa Thuret. Let us quote only the first letter, which sets the tone for the whole. "I am much obliged to you for sending me your excellent Catalogue [of the vascular plants that grow spontaneously around Menton and Monaco]. I told you in Nice how much I liked it. The science and care you brought to its execution only made me regret that you thought you had to limit yourself to listing the plants of such a small corner of our rich department instead of embracing the flora of the whole region. It's a real stroke of good fortune for botany that you're thinking of enlarging your scope. So M. Thuret and I warmly welcome your project, and we're ready to tell you all we know about the plants of our surroundings. M. Thuret fully approves of your plan. The only objection he raises concerns the limits you propose to give to your new catalog. He finds them too narrow, and would like the catalog to cover the whole department, even if certain parts are temporarily incomplete. You would certainly find the material for such a work in our herbarium, that of Abbé Montalieu, the communications of M. Loret, of M. Duval Jouve, who has herborized for several years in the Grasse area, and finally those of M. Canut. We know that Mr. Canut is more than willing to provide you with the information that ten years of herborizing in Nice County have given him. He has long wished to make your acquaintance, and was very sorry not to have been at Mr. Thuret's when you came. New faces frighten him a little, but I'm convinced you'll please him by showing up at his place. Our relations with him go back three years and have always been pleasant. M. Canut has found many plants, and it was he who rediscovered the Vaillanti hispida L. we were talking about in Nice, of which I enclose a small sample. Mr. Thuret has asked me to tell you how pleased he will be to have you in Antibes. He warns you, however, that 24 hours is not enough. He asks for three days: two to review the plants in the local herbarium, and one to take a walk around the house [...]". Two letters with small sketches.
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