author
Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle
1746–1800
An energetic French botanist and magistrate, he helped shape the careful description and naming of plants at a time when botany was rapidly expanding. His life mixed science, public office, and a still-unsolved violent death in Paris.
1 Audiobook
Sertum Anglicum, seu, Plantae Rariores quae in Hortis Juxta Londinum Imprimis in Horto Regio Kewensi excoluntur, ab anno 1786 ad annum 1787 observata
by Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle
About the author
Born in Paris on June 15, 1746, Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle was a French botanist as well as a civil servant and magistrate. Coming from a well-connected family, he held government posts connected with waters and forests, and that work helped deepen his interest in plants, especially trees and shrubs.
He became known for his exacting approach to plant classification and for publishing finely illustrated botanical works. His studies of genera such as Geranium, Pelargonium, and related plants helped build his reputation, and later botanists valued both his herbarium and his careful descriptions.
L'Héritier lived through the unsettled years around the French Revolution and continued working on botany despite political upheaval. He died in Paris in August 1800 after being attacked at night, a dramatic end to a life remembered mainly for its contribution to botanical science.