De Candolle, Augustin Pyramus 1779-1841  

De Candolle was a botanist and naturalist. He was born in Geneva, Switzerland and was a student of de Saussure. He went to Paris in 1796 and became associated with Cuvier, von Humboldt and Lamarck. He published History of Fleshy Plants (1799-1803). He took the degree of medicine in 1804 and in 1808 he was appointed Professor of Botany and Director of the Botanic Garden at the University of Montpelier. He published Elementary Theory of Botany in 1813. In this he developed his new classification of plants according to the natural system. Returning to Geneva, in 1817, he published the first volume of Natural System of the Vegetable Kingdom (1818). The second volume was published in 1821. In 1824, he began to publish Introduction to the Natural System of the Vegetable Kingdom, but did not live to complete the projected work. This book presented a methodical arrangement of all known plants by orders, genera, and species. He described the organs of plants with all their anatominal details. In 1828 he was elected a foreign associate of the Academy of Sciences, the first botanist since Linnaeus to receive the honor. He ranks among the greatest botanists of the 19th Century. His son, Alphonse de Candolle followed his father and is mainly responsible for the great work Prodromus Systematis Naturalis regni vegetablis. This book which made its appearance over a number of years followed the original lines laid down by his father.

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