caption death_date death_place children birth_place nationality fields workplaces parents birth_date spouse image article_title author_abbrev_bot name alma_mater
pierre marie auguste broussonet 17 january 1807 montpellier , france elisabeth broussonet jean louis victor broussonet montpellier , france french botany ichthyology natural history royal society national assembly of france françois broussonet -lrb- 1722-1792 -rrb- 28 february 1761 gabrielle mitteau pierre_marie_auguste_broussonet_1761-1807 . jpg pierre marie auguste broussonet
 brouss . pierre marie auguste broussonet université de montpellier
pierre marie auguste broussonet

pierre marie auguste broussonet -lrb- 28 february 1761 -- 17 january 1807 -rrb- , french naturalist , was born at montpellier .
his father , françois broussonet -lrb- 1722-1792 -rrb- , was a physician and professor of medicine at famous université de montpellier .
his brother , victor , studied there and later became its dean .
henri fouquet -lrb- 1727-1806 -rrb- , a professor at the medical school , was a relative , as was jean-antoine chaptal -lrb- 1756-1832 -rrb- , who subsequently became minister of the interior .
as a child , pierre showed a passion for natural history , cluttering his father 's house with specimen collections .
in school , he excelled in classical studies in montpellier , montélimar , and toulouse .
because of family tradition , he was headed toward studying medicine , which , at that time , included the study of the natural sciences which had not yet split off to form a separate discipline .
antoine gouan -lrb- 1733-1821 -rrb- , a convinced linnaean , taught at the montpellier medical school - apparently it was from him that broussonet learned of linnaeus ' work .
his thesis was entitled `` mémoire pour servir à l'histoire de la respiration des poissons '' , which he defended in 1778 .
he received his doctorate on 27 may 1779 , at the age of eighteen .
broussonet 's thesis was unanimously praised .
despite his youth , the professors of the university of montpellier asked that he be made his father 's successor when the latter retired -lrb- a rare but not uncommon request -rrb- .
the request was not granted , in spite of broussonet himself traveling to paris to plead his cause .
but while in paris he established friendships scholars who made it possible for him to continue his studies on fish .
although the paris ichthyological collections surpassed those that broussonet had worked from in the south , they were not comprehensive enough for the classification work he wished to pursue .
ultimately , he went to england to seek the specimens needed for the morphological and systematic work he had in mind .
1780 london offered broussonet all he could wish for : an active scientific community ; naturalists already embracing linnaeus ' ideas ; collections rich in new species ; and an influential friend , sir joseph banks -lrb- 1743-1820 -rrb- .
with his promotion , broussonet was elected to the royal society .
banks had brought back from cook 's first expedition a considerable number of exotic fish , which he turned over to broussonet for study , thereby making it possible for broussonet to start his `` ichthyologiae decas i '' , which was to contain descriptions of 1,200 species .
the first ten sections , in which he noted the important discovery of the pseudobranchia , were published in 1782 -lrb- broussonet 's ichthyologia was never completed -rrb- .
when broussonet returned to his homeland in 1782 , he brought a chinese maidenhair tree -lrb- `` ginkgo biloba '' -rrb- , given by sir joseph banks and the first specimen of this tree imported into france .
this species is often called a `` living fossil '' because it was first observed by europeans in fossil records before they discovered living trees in the zhejiang province in eastern china .
he presented this rare tree to gouan , then `` directeur du jardin des plantes de montpellier '' , who planted it in the garden in 1788 , where it can still be found .
broussonet also spent several months botanizing in the south of france and catalonia with john sibthorp -lrb- 1758-1796 -rrb- with father pierre andré pourret -lrb- 1754-1818 -rrb- .
when he returned to paris in 1785 , broussonet presented some of his `` notes ichthyologiques '' before the académie des sciences .
their merit and the support of louis jean-marie d'aubenton -lrb- 1716-1799 -rrb- , who , although anti-linnaean , was friendly toward broussonet , resulted in his election to the academy .
the challenges met by pre-revolutionary france led to broussonet 's decision to abandon the science of ichthyology .
many thought that the improvement of agricultural production , both in quality and in quantity , was an important priority .
this view was especially held by berthier de sauvigny -lrb- 1737-1789 -rrb- , the administrator of paris , and responsible for its food supply .
he had met broussonet while in england studying methods of cultivation and animal husbandry .
berthier , who had revived the société d'agriculture , persuaded broussonet to become its secretary .
in addition to this post , daubenton , who in 1783 had accepted the chair of rural economy at the alfort veterinary school , passed on this additional responsibility to his young friend .
broussonet tried hard to fulfill the duties of his new offices .
from 1785-1788 , he published short notices , some signed , some anonymous -lrb- many are still unidentified to this day -rrb- , for the use of farmers .
unfortunately , this work came too late , and the beginning of the french revolution put an end to broussonet 's agricultural efforts .
broussonet , then twenty-eight in 1789 , enthusiastically welcomed revolutionary ideas , as was characteristic of his generation , but he was horrified by the tactics of the extreme left .
on 22 july 1789 , his friend berthier , held responsible for the current famine , was lynched and dragged through the streets before his eyes .
seeing the danger , broussonet fled paris .
in 1792 he took refuge in montpellier but was accused of federalism and thrown in jail .
he remained there only a few days , but his liberty was still precarious after his release .
he then left montpellier for bagnères-de-bigorre to join his brother victor , then a doctor in the army of pyrénées-orientales .
on 19 july 1794 he crossed the spanish border .
broussonet was warmly received by the botanists casimiro gómez ortega -lrb- 1741-1818 -rrb- and antonio josé cavanilles -lrb- 1745-1804 -rrb- in madrid , gordon in jerez , and josé francisco correia da serra -lrb- 1750 -- 1823 -rrb- in lisbon .
banks also continued to be in contact and helped him financially .
but french citizens who had emigrated to spain earlier looked upon him as a revolutionary .
having become friends with simpson , american consul in gibraltar , broussonet accompanied him as physician on a diplomatic mission to morocco , where he studied the flora .
in 1795 , when he returned to france , broussonet 's name was removed from the list of political refugees , and he regained possession of his property .
elected to the institut in 1796 , he requested appointment as a `` voyageur de l'institut '' , stating that he wished to return to morocco to continue his research .
in 1797 , he was named vice-consul at mogador .
there he carried on his work of collecting and describing plants and animals , as well as attending to his consular duties .
in 1798 , ortega attempted to honor brousonet with genus broussonetia in the family fabaceae , but it was rejected -lrb- now sophora -rrb- .
in 1799 , charles louis l'héritier de brutelle -lrb- 1746 -- 1800 -rrb- successfully honored brousonet with the genus broussonetia -lrb- family moraceae , tribe moreae -rrb- .
a plague threatened mogador in 1799 .
on 8 july , broussonet sailed with his family to the canary islands , where he became commissioner of commercial relations .
he continued his collecting and observations , writing of them to cavanilles , l'héritier , and humboldt .
when the local authorities forbade him to travel , broussonet decided to leave his post .
he asked to be sent to the cape of good hope , where he hoped to create a botanical garden .
chaptal , then minister of the interior , supported his young relative 's request , and broussonet was named commissioner of commercial relations to the cape on 15 october 1802 .
he returned to france in 1803 to prepare for this new assignment , only to learn that chaptal had changed his mind and had had him made professor at the medical school of montpellier , to succeed gouan .
besides its teaching duties , broussonet 's new title , `` directeur du jardin des plantes de montpellier '' , put him in charge of the botanical gardens .
he restored its former layout and , helped financially by chaptal , built an orangery , dug ponds , and enlarged the collections , of which he published a list in 1805 - elenchus plantarum horti botanici monspeliensis .
broussonet was preparing to describe the 1,500 species collected at tenerife when he suffered a stroke that caused a gradually worsening aphasia .
on 17 august 1806 he notified the director of the medical school that he must resign his post , and a year later , he suffered a final stroke that caused his death .
