Lipkin, 2003). A senior director of the Phycological Trailblazer scienJfic project was the zoologist Geoffroy No. 26 Saint- Hilaire. The keen interest in all things EgypJan extended even to the algae, and a Alire Raffeneau Delile total of 35 species were collected: 23 species from the Mediterranean (in the vicinity of Alexandria) and 12 species from the Red Sea (originally printed in the Phycological newsle4er. 2007. (Aleem, 1993). The large-forma4ed 62 plates Vol. 43 No. 1) were executed by the arJst Henry- Joseph Redouté, brother of the renown Pierre- Alire Raffeneau Delile (1778-1850) was Joseph Redouté. Among the new species born at Versailles a decade prior to the described by Delile (1813b, 1826) was Ulva French revoluJon. His father was equerry to fasciata (Fig. 1), a species now thought to be the king, and his mother was in service to the idenJcal to Ulva lactuca Linnaeus. He also queen (Duval, 1982). As typical of his Jme, described Fucus taxiformis [= Asparagopsis Delile was both a pracJcing physician and a taxiformis (Delile) Trevisan], Fucus botanist. By his high marks on a compeJJve nayadiformis [= Acanthophora nayadiformis exam, he was admi4ed to the École de Santé (Delile) Papenfuss], Fucus cyanospermus [= in Paris. Although he was apprenJced to Dr. Palisada perforata (Bory) k.W. Nam], Fucus Brunyer, a physician in antennulatus [= the hospices of Cystoseira myrica (S.G. Versailles, he spent his Gmel.) C. Agardh], and free Jme wandering the Fucus tetragonus nom. gardens and illeg. [= Sargassum conservatories of the denfolium (Turner) C. Trianon. ConversaJons Agardh]. with the eminent While Delile was in botanist Lemonnier Egypt, the French fleet shied his focus to was destroyed by the plants. Delile also met BriJsh Navy under the René-Louiche command of Rear Desfontaines, who was Admiral HoraJo Nelson influenJal in Delile’s in the Ba4le of the Nile, decision to parJcipate as or Bale of Aboukir Bay, a botanist in Napoleon on 1 August 1798. This Bonaparte’s exploratory defeat brought French expediJon to Egypt, designs in the Middle even though Delile was Alire Raffeneau Delile (from Rioux, 1994, Le East to an end. The only twenty years old. In Jardin des plantes des Montpellier…). return of Delile and his fact, Delile was a compatriots to France replacement on the was iniJally blocked. But expediJon for Desfontaines (Rioux, 2003). Delile and the others were content to carry This conquest of Egypt by the army of on their scienJfic work. Delile was able to Napoleon in the period from 1798 to 1801 conJnue to collect plants, such as papyrus, was not only a military operaJon but also a and to culJvate many of them on the scienJfic and cultural phenomenon (Silva & grounds of a villa in Cairo, which he !1 plants behind and would go to London with them, if need be (Duval, 1982). The BriJsh admiral was impressed by the arguments made by this twenty-two-year old, relented, and let the plant collecJons leave with the L’Oiseau. Thus, in November 1801, Delile returned to France along with his valuable collecJons. Back working at the “king’s Garden”, Delile succeeded in publishing on the Nile lotus and on the Liliaceae of Egypt, while he contemplated a more major work on the EgypJan flora. But this Jme of great governmental upheaval (Napoleon Bonaparte had declared himself First Consul for life) was also a Jme when Delile suffered from melancholy and great inner turmoil (Duval, 1982). He had only parJally worked up his EgypJan collecJons when he felt the need for a complete change of view. Napoleon himself offered Delile the new post of Fig. 1. Ulva fasciata Delile [from Delile, 1826, pl. 58, fig. 5.] subcommissioner for commerce in North Carolina, apparently as a way to interrupt Delile’s botanical career at least for a Jme fashioned into a botanical garden (Duval, and to pull him out of his neuroJc state 1982). Delile also was capJvated by the (Duval, 1982). Thus, Delile accepted this sacred lotus (Nymphaea lotus), growing foreign assignment as a representaJve for along the banks of the Nile. He recorded the French government, and he sailed for careful observaJons on its biology. North America, arriving in Wilmington. Eventually, the BriJsh troops entered There, represenJng France, he worked to Cairo, and Delile and his fellow scienJsts facilitate French-American commercial parJcipated in the struggle. As the BriJsh relaJons (Gillispie, 1970). He leZ that took the city, Delile and his fellow Frenchmen assignment in 1806 and moved to made every effort to evacuate with their Philadelphia where he worked with the scienfic collecons, which for Delile physician, Dr. Benjamin S. Barton at the included not only his herbarium but also his Pennsylvania Hospital (Stafleu & Cowan, living plants. AZer much travail, including a 1976). This led to his resuming his medical small caravan conducted at night with the studies there, and he conJnued his studies at help of a Muslim friend, Delile managed to Columbia College in New York City. In May load most of his collecJons onto the brig 1807, he successfully defended his M.D. L’Oiseau. The ship was intercepted by the thesis on tuberculosis (Delile, 1807). This BriJsh on the high seas, and at first Delile’s thesis was dedicated to the late doctors collecJons were confiscated on the basis (of Desgene4es and Larrey, Chief Physician and “ArJcle XVI of the Alexandria capitulaJon”) Chief Surgeon, respecJvely, of the Army of that the EgypJan flora was classified as “art Egypt. Shortly thereaZer, he was recalled by objects”. Delile protested to the English France to resume the job of ediJng the flora admiral, saying that he would not leave his of Egypt, a work that he completed in 1809 !2 (Delile, 1813a, b, 1826). A second ediJon of under the Authority of the Trustees of the text appeared in 1824. Columbia College, in the State of New York, t With these accomplishments, Delile he Right Rev. Benjamin Moore, D. D. became a candidate for the professorship of President; for the degree of Doctor of botany at the Faculty of Medicine at the Medicine, on the 5th day of May, 1807. T. & J. University of Montpellier, but A. P. de Swords, New York City. 50 pp. ______. 1813a. Florae AegypJacae illustraJo. In: Candolle was awarded that posiJon (de France (Commission d’Egypte), DescripJon de Candolle, 2004; Bungener, 2004). This forced l’Égypte, ou recueil des observaions et des Delile to return to his medical pracJce. Upon recherches qui on été faites en Égypte the collapse of the French empire in 1819, de pendant l’expédJon de l’armée française, Candolle leZ France for Switzerland, and publié par les ordres de sa majesté Napoleon Delile was appointed to that posiJon, a le Grand. Historie naturelle. Paris: Imprimerie professorship in Medical Natural History at Impériale. Vol. 2. Fascicle 1. [i-iv] + [1]-144. the University of Montpellier, a posiJon that ______. 1813b, 1826. Flore d’Égypte. ExplicaJon des he held unJl his death in 1850 (Rioux, 1994). planches. In: France (Commission d’Égypte), Delile had many and diverse publicaJons, DescripJon de l’Égypte, ou recueil des only a small fracJon having to do with his observaions et des recherches qui on été experience in Egypt (Gillispie, 1970). His faites en Égypte pendant l’expédJon de research interests included not only the algae l’armée française, publié par les ordres de sa majesté Napoleon le Grand. Historie but fungi, bryophytes, ferns, and seed plants. naturelle. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale. Vol. 2. He had a paper on the phenomenon of Fascicle 2. 145-462. Atlas: 62 pls. (1826). bioluminescence in the mushroom Agaricus ______. 1824. DescripJon de l’Egypte: recueil des olearius DC (Delile, 1837). His reputaJon as observaJons et des recherches qui ont été having parJcipated in Napoleon’s faites en Egypte pendant l’expédiJon de expediJonary forces into Egypt gave him the l’armée française. Second ediJon. C. L. F. sobriquet “Delile l’ÉgypJen” to his colleagues Panckoucke, Paris. 62 pls. in Montpellier (Rioux, 2004). The genera ______. 1837. Nouvel examen de la phosphorescence Delilia Sprengel (1823) of the Asteraceae, de l’Agaric de l’Olivier. Bull. Société Lilaea Bonpland in von Humboldt & d’Agriculture du département de l’Herault. 16 Bonpland (1808) of the Juncaginaceae, and pp., 1 pl. Raffenaldia Godron (1859) of the Duval, M. 1982. The king’s Garden. Translated by A. Brassicaceae were named in his honor. Tomarken and C. Cowen. University Press of Virginia, Charlo4esville. ix + 214 pp. Gillispie, C. C. (ed.). 1970. Delile (or Raffeneau-Delile), Aleem, A. A. 1993. Marine algae of Alexandria. Alire. DicJonary of scienJfic biography. vol. Published by the author, Alexandria. IV, pp. 21-22. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New Bungener, P. 2004. Mémoires et souvenirs d’AugusJn- York. Pyramus de Candolle ou le récit de la vie d’un Rioux, J.-A. 1994. Le Jardin des plantes de Montpellier: savant botaniste. Archives de Sciences quatre siècles d’historie. Préface de Théodore [Genève] 57: 39-44. Monod. EdiJons Odyssée, Graulhet. 230 pp. Candolle, A.-P. de. 2004. Mémoires et souvenirs (1778- ______. 2004. Le Jardin des plantes de Montpellier. 1841). J.-D. Candaux & J. M. Drouyin (eds.), “les leçons de l’histoire”. Préface de Hubert avec le concours de P. Bungener & R. Sigrist, Bonnet. Sauramps médical, Montpellier. [iv] + Georg, Genève. Bibliotheque d’Historie des 114 + [ii] pp. Sciences, vol. 5. 591 pp. Silva, P. C. and Y. Lipkin. 2003. Marine algae published Delile, A. R. 1807. An inaugural dissertaJon on by Savigny in the zoological porJon of pulmonary consumpJon. Submi4ed to the public examinaJon of the Faculty of Physic !3 “DescripJon de l’Égypte”. Cryptogamie, Algologie 24: 371-386.