Victor Jacquemont
Victor Vincelas Jacquemont (8 August 1801 – 7 December 1832) was a French botanist and geologist.
Born in Paris on August 8, 1801, Victor Jacquemont was the youngest of four sons of Venceslas Jacquemont and Rose Laisné.
After being invited by the Jardin des Plantes to collect plant and animal specimens from a country of his choice, Jacquemont traveled to India in 1828, and remained there for the rest of his life. He visited Amber in Rajputana, met with the Sikh Emperor Ranjit Singh at his capital of Lahore, and visited the kingdom of Ladakh in the Himalaya. He also visited Bardhaman (Burdwan) in Bengal in November 1829. He died of cholera in Bombay on December 7, 1832.[1]
Several plants are named for him, including Acacia jacquemontii, the Himalayan White Birch (Betula jacquemontii), the Indian Tree Hazel (Corylus jacquemontii), Afghan Cherry (Prunus jacquemontii), and the cobra lily or Jack in the pulpit (Arisaema jacquemontii).
References
- ^ Lancaster 2013, pp. 51.
- ^ International Plant Names Index. Jacquem.
Bibliography
- Bengali translation of his travel writings on India entitled 'Kolikata Chhariye' (Beyond Kolkata) by Abanti Kumar Sanyal (Dhrupadi Publishing Company, Kolkata). Some excerpts from the Bengali translation reproduced in Burdwan Raj College Centenary Commemoration Volume (1981).
- Lancaster, Roy (2013), "Bringing back the birch", The Garden, 138 (11), Royal Horticultural Society
