Lankesteriana ISSN: 1409-3871 Lankester Botanical Garden, University of Costa Rica Ossenbach, Carlos; Jenny, Rudolf Pioneers of the botanical exploration of south america - early 19 th century jean-théodore descourtilz (1796-1855) Lankesteriana, vol. 17, no. 3, 2017, pp. 433-472 Lankester Botanical Garden, University of Costa Rica DOI: 10.15517/lank.v17i3.31751 Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=44355365007 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System Redalyc More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Journal's webpage in redalyc.org Portugal Project academic non-profit, developed under the open access initiative LANKESTERIANA 17(3): 433—472. 2017. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.15517/lank.v17i3.31751 PIONEERS OF THE BOTANICAL EXPLORATION OF SOUTH AMERICA – EARLY 19TH CENTURY JEAN-THÉODORE DESCOURTILZ (1796–1855) CARLOS OSSENBACH1, 2, 4 & RUDOLF JENNY3 1 Orquideario 25 de Mayo, San José, Costa Rica 2 Lankester Botanical Garden, University of Costa Rica. P.O.Box 302-7050 Cartago, Costa Rica 3 Swiss Orchid Foundation, Herbarium Jany Renz, University of Basel, Switzerland 4 Author for correspondence: [email protected] ABSTRACT. Jean-Théodore Descourtilz (1796-1855) was a well-known ornithologist who produced beautiful illustrated books on Brazilian birds. Less-known is an unpublished manuscript with water-colours of Brazilian orchids, which was acquired by the wealthy French Baron Delessert, who send it on loan to John Lindley. Lindley described dozens of new orchid species based on Descourtilz’ illustrations and used several of them as models for his beautiful publication Sertum Orchidaceum. Here we present a large selection of Descourtilz’ original illustrations of Brazilian orchids, including all the drawings that have been used by Lindley to typify his new taxa based on Descourtilz’ exploration. KEY WORDS: Brazil, Jules Paul Benjamin Delessert, Jean-Théodore Descourtilz, John Lindley, Sertum Orchidaceum The Descourtilz family in America. MICHAEL- scientific value” (Grisebach, 1859-64: vii) (Fig. 1–2). ETIENNE DESCOURTILZ (1775-1835), after completing Looking at the illustrations, one must go along with his medical studies, traveled to Charleston, South Grisebach´s opinion, as Descourtilz’ illustrations lack Carolina and Santiago de Cuba, arriving in Haiti on detail. 2 April 1799. After many hardships during the slave Jean-Theodore Descourtilz travelled to South revolts at the turn of the century, he was held captive America, and arrived in Brazil in about 1826, since for some time and finally obtained freedom after being in 1831 his lavishly illustrated manuscript on the liberated by a French Army column, leaving the island hummingbirds of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro was on “1 Prairial, an XI” of the revolutionary calendar acquired by the library of the National Museum. In (May 23, 1803). After his return to France, he worked this work, referring to a particular hummingbird, as a physician in a hospital at Beaumont and served he states that it was a species so rare that in five as president of the Paris Linnean Society. He never years of research he collected only two specimens. travelled to America again. Descourtilz was an interested and meticulous Descourtilz published Flore médicale des Antilles observer, concerned about the accuracy of his notes ou Traité des Plantes Usuelles des Colonies Francaises, which concisely described the habits and appearance Anglaises, Espagnoles et Portugaises (Medicinal of each species. His poetic and flowery text was Flora of the Antilles or Treatise of the usual plants of in keeping with the period, and was invariably the French, English, Spanish and Portuguese colonies) accompanied by colour plates of the species between 1821 and 1829, illustrated by his son JEAN studied. In 1834, his Oiseaux brillans du Brésil was THÉODORE DESCOURTILZ (1796-1855), a physician and published in Paris, again with magnificent water- botanist like his father. Five orchids were described colour illustrations (Figs. 3–4), so that one comes and illustrated in this work. to doubt that they came from the same hand that had The illustrations are of little botanical value. produced the “execrable chiefly copied drawings” Grisebach went further and called them “a series of published ten years earlier and so harshly criticized execrable chiefly copied drawings, […] of little or no by Grisebach. Received 8 March 2017; accepted for publication 13 December 2017. First published online: 15 December 2017. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Costa Rica License 434 LANKESTERIANA FIGURE 1. Descourtilz – Angrec en coquille from his father’s Flore médicale des Antilles… LANKESTERIANA 17(3), December 2017. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2017. OSSENBACH & JENNY — Jean-Théodore Descourtilz 435 FIGURE 2. Descourtilz – Angrec à feuilles obtuses from his FIGURE 3. Descourtilz – Plate VI from his Oiseaux brillans father’s Flore médicale de Antilles… du Brésil. A reason may be that Descourtilz Jr. was only description of the new Brazilian species, Bolbophyllum seven years old when his father returned from Haiti tripetalum (Lindl., Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. 10, p. 185), John and therefore never saw the Antillean orchids of Lindley cited the provenance of the type in this way: Wild which Descourtilz Sr. wrote with his own eyes. His in Brazil, in the province of St.Paul’s — Descourtilz — illustrations in the Flore des Antilles must have been (v. ic. pict. in bibl. De Lessert)1. This somewhat cryptic based either on herbarium specimens or perhaps on annotation can only be understood as that Lindley found sketches made in the field by his father. Another an illustration by Descourtilz of the plant now described possibility is that he never produced the illustrations as a new species. This is corroborated after further of the Flore des Antilles, and that they came from studying Lindley’s descriptions of other new Brazilian the hand of another artist, perhaps his father himself. species, when we read, in his description of Ionopsis Either way, the two sets of illustrations have little in paniculata: …a very remarkable species, with which common. I am acquainted through an extensive unpublished So far, Jean-Théodore Descourtilz had no apparent collection of excellent water-colour drawings, by Mons. relation with the Brazilian orchid world, but around 1836 Descourtilz, of Brazilian Orchideous plants, obligingly our story took and unexpected turn. At the end to the lent to me by Baron Delessert. 1 vidi iconam pictam in bibliotheca De Lessert (= I saw a colored illustration in De Lessert’s library). LANKESTERIANA 17(3), December 2017. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2017. 436 LANKESTERIANA FIGURE 4. Descourtilz: plate XI from his Oiseaux brillans du Brésil. LANKESTERIANA 17(3), December 2017. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2017. OSSENBACH & JENNY — Jean-Théodore Descourtilz 437 FIGURE 5. Baron Jules Paul Benjamin Delessert (1773.1847). As life goes, the one responsible for execrable fell somehow in his hands. It may even be that they chiefly copied drawings produced now – one decade were produced on a contract given by Delessert to later - excellent water-colour drawings! And being Descourtilz. Lindley a skilled illustrator himself, one must trust his Our search for a publication of Descourtilz’ judgement. drawings was fruitless, simply – as we soon found A parenthesis is here required to comment on out – because they were never published. After a BARON JULES PAUL BENJAMIN DELESSERT (1773-1847) long search and with more than a bit of fool’s luck, (Fig. 5). Born in Lyon in a wealthy family of bankers, we found, in the library of the Institut de France2, in he started many commercial enterprises, among them Paris, an unpublished manuscript by Jean-Théodore a sugar factory where the industrial manufacture of Descourtilz, consisting of 83 water-colour illustrations sugar from beet was developed, and for which he was of Brazilian orchids, and the corresponding explanatory named a ‘baron of the Empire’. texts detailing the structure and anatomy of the plants, A strong advocate for many humane measures, the their habitat, and their locality of collection. The suppression of the death penalty, and the improvement manuscript carries the title: Epidendres des forêts of the penitentiary system, he was made regent of vierges du Brésil (Epidendra from the virgin forests of the Bank of France in 1802, and was also member Brazil) (Fig. 6) and attached to it are a few – almost of, and, indeed, founder of many, learned and unreadable notes and fragments of letters that give us philanthropic societies. He was also an ardent botanist an idea of the timeline. and conchologist; his botanical library embraced • The 3 volumes were received from M. Descourtilz 30,000 volumes, of which he published a catalogue, by Delessert on Sept. 3rd 1832. Descourtilz was the Musée botanique de M. Delessert (1845). He paid an advance of 300 P (?). bought specimens from famous herbaria, among them • 83 water-color designs were sent to Mr. Lindley those from Humboldt and Bonpland, de Candolle, plus one manuscript text through Mr. Percy on the and Robert Brown, and at the time of his death his 1st of May (?) of 1836 for determination. herbarium contained 250,000 sheets representing • The water-colours were returned to the heirs of 85,000 different species. It is therefore no surprise to M. Delessert on February 18, 1852 by way of Mr. us that Descourtilz’ water-colours of Brazilian orchids Weddell3 (Delessert had died in 1847). 2 The Institute de France is an umbrella institution founded in 1795 during the French Revolution, comprising the Académie Française, the Académie des Beaux-Arts, the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, the Académie des sciences, and the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. 3 Hugh Algernon Weddell (22 June 1819 – 22 July 1877) was a physician and botanist, specializing in South American flora. LANKESTERIANA 17(3), December 2017.