From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pierre Nicolas Le Cheron d'Incarville
(21 August 1706 ? 12 June 1757) was a French
Jesuit
and amateur
botanist
. He was a missionary to China and was the first person to introduce several important plants to the West. During his stay, he was also actively involved in publishing scholarly material on China.
Life
[
edit
]
D'Incarville was born in
Louviers
(although some sources
[
which?
]
cite
Rouen
). He entered the Jesuit order in 1727 and taught in
Quebec
between 1730 and 1739 before being sent on a mission to China in 1740. He was tasked with converting the
Qianlong Emperor
of China, but the emperor showed little interest and denied d'Incarville access to the imperial gardens. However, when the emperor was shown some sensitive plants (
Mimosa pudica
) that d'Incarville had grown, he was so amused that he allowed the Jesuit into the gardens. D'Incarville was on excellent terms with the emperor, and he continued to introduce many other European plants to him during his time in China.
D'Incarville described and sent back seeds of several plants then unknown in Europe as a correspondent of the
Jardin des Plantes
. He was not a professional botanist, but was nonetheless well educated in the field and was made a correspondent of
Claude Joseph Geoffroy
at the
Academie des Sciences
in
Paris
after refusing to become a foreign associate of the
Royal Society
. Plants he introduced to the Western world include the tree of heaven (
Ailanthus altissima
), the
pagoda tree
(
Styphnolobium japonicum
),
Koelreuteria paniculata
and
Toona sinensis
. He was also the first European to describe the
kiwifruit
.
In addition to his correspondence work, he wrote several works that were published in Europe. These covered topics such as the
ailanthus silkmoth
, Chinese
varnishing
and fireworks, as well as a French-Chinese dictionary. He also published a copy of a 16th-century botanical illustration work (the
Yuzhi bencao pinhui jingyao
). D'Incarville died in
Beijing
in June 1757.
Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu
named the
bignoniaceae
genus
Incarvillea
after him.
References
[
edit
]
- Hu, Shiu-ying (March 1979).
"
Ailanthus altissima
"
(PDF)
.
Arnoldia
.
39
(2): 29?50
. Retrieved
2007-05-30
.
- Klingaman, Gerald (July 23, 2004).
"Mimosa"
.
Plant of the Week
. University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. Archived from
the original
on September 12, 2007
. Retrieved
2007-07-09
.
- de Morembert, H. Tribout (1994). "Incarville (Pierre Nicolas Le Cheron d')". In M. Prevost; Roman d'Amat; J.P. Lobies; H. Tribout de Morembert (eds.).
Dictionnaire de Biographie francaise
(in French). Vol. XVIII: Humann?Lacombe. Paris: Letouzey et Ane. p. 162.
ISBN
2-7063-0177-5
.
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