Pierre Edmond Boissier

Pierre Edmond Boissier (10 May 1810 Geneva - 25 September 1885 Valeyres-sous-Rances) was a Swiss botanist, explorer and mathematician. He was the son of Jacques Boissier (1784-1857) and Lucile Butini (1786-1836), daughter of Pierre Butini (1759-1838) a well-known physician and naturalist from Geneva. With his sister, Valérie Boissier (1813-1894), he received a strict education with lessons delivered in Italian and Latin. Edmond's interest in natural history stemmed from holidays in the company of his mother and his grandfather, Pierre Butini at Valeyres-sous-Rances. His hikes in the Jura and the Alps laid the foundation of his zest for later exploration and adventure. He attended a course at the Academy of Geneva given by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle.

Boissier collected extensively in Europe, North Africa and western Asia, on occasion accompanied by his daughter, Caroline Barbey-Boissier (1847-1918) and her husband, William Barbey (1842-1914), who collected in their own right for their Herbier Barbey-Boissier in Geneva. Boissier covered countries such as France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain (Balearic Islands), Switzerland, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Armenia, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. His specimens are held at the following herbaria: AK, AWH, B, BERN, BM, BORD, BP, BR, C, CAS, CGE, CN, DBN, E, E-GL, F, FABR, FI, FR, G, GE, GH, GOET, H, HAL, JE, K, KIEL, L, LAU, LE, LY, LZ, M, MA, MANCH, MICH, MO, MPU, OXF, P, P-CO, PH, PI, TCD, TO, W, WAG, WB (see List of herbaria).

Works

• Boissier, Edmond (1867–1884). Flora Orientalis sive enumeratio plantarum in Oriente a Graecia et Aegypto ad Indiae fines hucusque observatarum. Genevae et Basileae: apud H. Georg, Bibliopolam.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date format (link) Five volumes
• Voyage Botanique dans le Midi de l’Espagne pendant l’annéee 1837, 1839-45
• Elenchus plantarum novarum ... in itinere hispanico legit, 1838
• With Georges François Reuter (1805-1872), Diagnoses plantarum novarum hispanicum, 1842
• With Georges François Reuter, Pugillus plantarum novarum Africae borealis Hispaniaeque australis, 1852
• Diagnoses plantarum orientalium novarum, 1842-1859
• With Friedrich Alexander Buhse (1821-1898), Aufzählung der auf einer Reise durch Transkaukasien und Persien gesammelten Pflanzen, 1860
• Icones Euphorbiarum, 1866

Eponymy

• Boissiera is a genus in the family of Poaceae.
• Ulmus boissieri Grudz., an elm found in Iran.
• Boissiera is the title of a collection of systematic botany memoirs published by the Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques de la Ville de Genève (CJB).

Pyrus boissieriana is a species of Pear in Iran, Turcomania and Azerbaijan

External links

• Historical Orchid Literature
• Essay on Boissier
• Plantas andaluzas en el herbario del Real Colegio Alfonso XII