The Conservatoire Et Jardin Botaniques De Genève, Founded by Augustin-Pyramus De Candolle (1778-1841) in 1817 Celebrate Their 200Th Anniversary

The Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de Genève, founded by Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle (1778-1841) in 1817 celebrate their 200th anniversary

Martin W. Callmander, Patrick Bungener & Pierre Boillat Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle, a nomadic life at the origin of the CJBG 1778 Born in Geneva on February 4, 1778

Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle (age 14)

Drawing attributed to C.-J. Auriol

Collection de Candolle / © B. Renaud

His earliest memories of botany

“I rather distinctly remember [around 11 years of age] …my mother had charged me with arranging his fruit shed; I did this with pleasure and care and ever since I’ve given the greatest attention to not confuse species and to arrange them in a way putting those that resemble one another side-by-side. It was an early indication … of my future inclinations.”

A.-P. de Candolle, Mémoires et souvenirs (1778-1841) (ed.: J.-D. Candaux & al.), [Genève: Georg, 2004], pp. 62-63 Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle, a nomadic life at the origin of the CJBG 1796 Assistant director in charge of nomenclature at the Botanical Garden of St. Léger

His future education

“I will be a naturalist and rhetorician, these are my Plan of the Botanical Garden of St Léger two primary goals.... To become a naturalist... one

Drawing in India ink by L. Bagutti, 1819 must study physics and chemistry.... To be a

Letter of A.-P. de Candolle to Pierre Girod, April 24, 1796 Collection de Candolle Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle, a nomadic life at the origin of the CJBG 1798 Immersing himself in the scholarly milieu of Paris and in the circle of great names in natural history

Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840)

Cactus cochellinifer aquarelle sur vélin destinée au recueil

"Plantanum succulentaum historia, 1797-1798, Paris © Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle

Jean-Baptiste de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck (1744-1829)

Oil on cloth by C. Thevenin

Private Coll./© Bridgeman Images The Histoire des Plantes Grasses [Natural history of succulent plants]

“This volume will be, if it succeeds, one of the most beautiful and Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759- useful works in botany, and if I undertake it carefully it alone 1840) will earn me a reputation. This isn’t the only benefit I stand to

Oil on cloth by L.-L. gain from it, there is another even more precious, which it that Boilly it will open the doors for me to everything.” Palais des Beaux- Arts, Lille / © RMN- Letter of A.-P. de Candolle to his father [Augustin], July 20, 1798 Grand Palais / H. Lewandowski Collection de Candolle Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle, a nomadic life at the origin of the CJBG 1800, 1806, 1808 The Institut de France in Paris : A.-P. de Candolle was denied the position three times after the death of L’Héritier de Brutelle (1746-1800), Michel Adanson (1727-1806) and Etienne-Pierre Ventenat (1757-1808).

View of Collège des Quatre Nations [Institut de France]

Watercolor V.-J. Nicolle paper , c. 1810

Musée National du Chateau de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison / © Bridgeman Image Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle, a nomadic life at the origin of the CJBG 1808 The Directorship of the Jardin des plantes de Montpellier was offered to him

His directorship of the Montpellier Jardin des Plantes and his university teaching

“I’m very busy with my position; every day I give a lesson; each Thursday I collect plants; every other day its my turn to follow exams and theses. Add to that running the botanical garden, which is a round-the-clock occupation.”

Letter of A.-P. de Candolle to his father [Augustin], April 20, 1808 Collection de Candolle

The Montpellier Jardin des plantes

Drawn and lithographed by J. Boilly, 1839

© Médiathèque Centrale Emile Zola Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle, a nomadic life at the origin of the CJBG 1813 In February of 1813 he successfully brought out his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, an in depth reflection on the founding principals of the discipline.

His Théorie élémentaire

“... since my last letter I published my Théorie élémentaire de [la] Botanique. It’s the work I’ve given more importance to than anything in my whole life. I had been thinking over it for more than fifteen years.... The one who would tell me that this work could be published just at the moment of asking for the post of head of public instruction [the Rector].... This book has been a great success here, and since then my course is being followed more than ever.”

Letter of A.-P. de Candolle to his father [Augustin], May 21, 1813 Collection de Candolle Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle, a nomadic life at the origin of the CJBG 1815 He was finally appointed Rector in Montpellier but just for 42 days… The defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleon's rule as Emperor of the French, and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile

On the Return of A.-P. de Candolle in Geneva

“Towards the end of September, forty small rolling chariots arrived one fine day in the place of Saint- Pierre. ... As a cart was unpacked, the packets of herbarium numbered from Montpellier were put in their place, books and furniture to theirs and all this, thanks to the order I had placed there, was put away with such a precision that in the day everything was cased in its place and the next morning to the great amazement of all my surroundings I could already work as if I had been established for a long time.”

A.-P. de Candolle, Mémoires et souvenirs (1778-1841) (ed.: J.-D. Candaux & al.), [Genève: Georg, 2004], pp. 339

Battle of Waterloo. 18 June 1815.

Clément-Auguste Andrieux (1829 - 1880)

© Photo RMN-Grand Palais - G. Blot Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle, a nomadic life at the origin of the CJBG 1816 The year without a summer: explosion of the Tambora volcano (Indonesia) causing the phenomenon

Eruption of the Tambora

Island of Sumbawa, Indonesia 1817

Because of the food shortage of 1816, potatoes were first cultivated at the Bastions prior to inaugurating the Botanical Garden

Not less than 600 plant species were planted by the winter 1817 Foundation of the Botanical Garden 1817 On November 19, the authorities planted the first species at today’s Parc des Bastions

After dedication of the garden, Candolle redoubled his efforts. With his prodigious energy, the Garden would soon hold 4,000 species.

“L’ Homme-Jardin”

“For the past month I have been spending all my time sowing seeds, planting, pressing both men and things in order to organize this establishment, which by its location and its nature is likely to bring honour to our country”

Letter of A.-P. de Candolle to Dr Marcet in London, 30 april 1818

Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle (1778-1841)

Oil on canvas, P.-L. Bouvier, 1822

1824 First volume of the Prodromus published (started in 1821), an encyclopedic, 17-volume monograph aiming to enumerate all the then-known plants of the world within a "natural" system of classification, is considered the greatest contribution to the science of botany of the Candolle family dynasty.

A work begun by A.-P. de Candolle but continued across generations Vol. 1-7: DC.; Vol. 8-17: son A. DC. and grandson C.DC.

The Prodromus in 17 volumes "Owing to this extraordinary growth, it is clear that

From A.-P. & A. de Candolle, Prodromus systematis naturalis the undertaking of a well thought-out enumeration of regni vegetabilis, vol. 1-17, [Paris: Treuttel & Würz; Fortin, the plants has become an immense undertaking Masson et Cie; V. Masson, 1824-1873] which exceeds the lifetime of any one man." © Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de Genève / M. Faustino A.-P. de Candolle, Mémoires et souvenirs (1778-1841) (éd.: J.-D. Candaux & al.), [Genève: Georg, 2004], pp. 435

Foundation of the Botanical Conservatory 1824 A Conservatoire was erected on the grounds of the Botanical Garden

On a botanical garden at Geneva

“.... The experience I have with this kind of

View of the Botanical Garden (with the orangery et Botanical Conservatory) establishment [botanical garden] and the correspondence I have not only with Europe but the Engraving – G. Engelmann, c. 1825 whole world make me certain that within very few © BGE - Bibliothèque de Genève, Centre d’iconographie genevoise years I would make the Geneva garden among the top rank, I would link my name forever to an honorable institution, and I would be the first to give Geneva a new kind of scientific renown.”

Letter of A.-P. de Candolle to his father [Augustin], May 16, 1814 Collection de Candolle Foundation of the Botanical Conservatory 1824 A Conservatoire was erected on the grounds of the Botanical Garden

One of the first herbaria donated to the Conservatoire was none other than that of Albrecht de Haller (1758-1823), the third son of the famous Bernese botanist of the same name, Albrecht de Haller (1708-1777).

Adenostyles alliariae (Gouan) A.Kern. Asteraceae

Haller, A. 137, Switzerland, Neuchâtel, Creux du Vent, VII.1797 Foundation of the Botanical Conservatory 1869 The Conservatoire received an exceptional gift

One of the largest private herbaria of the time : – the collection of the Parisian industrialist of Swiss origin, Benjamin Delessert (1773-1847) with more than 250,000 specimens

Benjamin Delessert (1773-1847)

Oil on cloth by J. Boze, around 1790

Collection privée / © Bridgeman Image Foundation of the Botanical Conservatory 1869 The Conservatoire received an exceptional gift

A pre-Linnaean collections that had belonged to Johannes Burman (1706-1779), his son Nicolaus Laurens Burman (1733-1793), and Martinus Houttuyn (1720-1798).

These were reorganized in 2015 under the acronym G-PREL

Lectotype of Gnaphalium aureum Thunb. ex Houtt. in Houttuyn’s Cape herbarium in G-PREL. Foundation of the Botanical Conservatory 1869 The Conservatoire received an exceptional gift The Grande Serre Chaude. Watercolor, Auguste Garnerey (before 1824). © RMN-Grand Palais

Herbarium of Etienne-Pierre Ventenat (1757-1808), one of the botanists of Empress Joséphine (1763-1814)

Ventenat had described the remarkable collection that the Empress had gathered in her large tropical Greenhouse at the Château de Malmaison, near Paris, in the two-volume Jardin de la Malmaison, magnificently illustrated by Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1761-1841)

Lectotype of Phebalium squamulosum Vent. in Ventenat’s herbarium in G Foundation of the Botanical Conservatory 1904 John Isaac Briquet (1870-1931) The Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques

View of La Console, 1910

“The collections and books had invaded the available space to such an extent that it had become impossible for visitors to work there”

J. Briquet, inauguration report, 1904. Foundation of the Botanical Conservatory 1904 John Isaac Briquet (1870-1931) The Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques

View of the Library, 1904

In the new building, two rooms on the upper ground floor were reserved for the 2,000 book titles and large number of journals in the library. Foundation of the Botanical Conservatory 1904 John Isaac Briquet (1870-1931) The Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques

In 1897 Briquet also had launched a scientific journal the Annuaire du Conservatoire et du Jardin botaniques de Genève, which in 1922 became today’s Candollea

The journal, which is exchanged with other scientific periodicals, enabled the library to greatly increase its collection of publications from around the world. Gifts of Burnat, Candolle and Boissier herbaria: a rapid increase of the collections 1911-1912 Emile Burnat (1828-1920)

Burnat maintained a discreet but essential role in the construction of the new La Console building; he even paid for more than half of its extension expenses in 1911-1912 to house his next herbarium donation to the City of Geneva.

He also bestowed his fabulous library of 904 books in 1,701 volumes and 3,194 brochures in 174 volumes.

The Burnat Herbarium (G-BU)

Gifts of Burnat, Candolle and Boissier families: a rapid increase of the collections

1921 The Candolle family collections

Library

“[This] new acquisitions constitutes an unparalleled enrichment. The result is that we now possess one of the largest botanical libraries in the world at the Conservatoire botanique de Genève, an incomparable instrument for scientific study."

J. Briquet, Annual report, 1922-1923

Herbarium

400,000 specimens comprising 180,000 specimens linked to the Prodromus (G-DC).