Antoine de Jussieu was a French botanist, naturalist, and paleontologist. He is known for his works on human anatomy, zoology, and botany, including one on the flower and fruit of the coffee shrub.
Background
Antoine de Jussieu was born on July 6, 1686, in Lyons, France. He was one of six children of Laurent de Jussieu, a Lyonnais apothecary, and Lucie Cousin.
He was the first in the botanical dynasty that included his younger brothers Bernard and Joseph and his nephew Antoine-Laurent.
Education
Jussieu studied medicine and botany at Montpellier under Pierre Magnol, the first French botanist to attempt a natural classification of plants and the originator of the family concept in botany. Having obtained the Doctor of Medicine degree on December 15, 1707, Jussieu went to Paris to study under Tournefort, who died shortly after his arrival.
Career
Tournefort’s successor as professor of botany at the Jardin du Roi, Danty d’lsnard, resigned in 1710 and Jussieu, then twenty-four, was appointed to this post, which he occupied until his death. During his first years as a professor, he traveled in France, Spain, and Portugal; his later years were spent in Paris.
Jussieu’s published contributions to the natural sciences were numerous but relatively modest with respect to content. His main activities were the development of the Jardin du Roi and the training of pupils. As a teacher, he was a faithful follower of Tournefort, and his brothers were among his students. Jussieu was also a successful physician, laying the foundation for the fortune that enabled the other family members to pursue their scientific careers.
Jussieu was the first (1715) to give a scientific description of the coffee plant, which he grew from seed obtained from the Amsterdam Botanic Garden. Although his description was detailed and precise, he did not recognize the plant, as did Linnaeus in 1737, as a genus of its own. In later years Jussieu tried to stimulate the cultivation of coffee in several of the French colonies, especially on the île de Bourbon (now the island of Réunion).
Jussieu was responsible for a posthumous edition of Jacques Barrelier’s important Plantae per Galliam, Hispaniam et ltaliam observatae (1714) and the third edition of Tournefort’s Institutiones. He also wrote numerous memoirs, the most noteworthy of which is his treatise (1728) on the need to establish the fungi as a separate class of plants, the Plantae fungosae. Discovering the fungal nature of the nongreen com-ponent of lichens, Jussieu proposed that lichens and fungi be classified together. He regarded the spores of the higher basidiomycetes as seeds.
Possibly influenced by Scheuchzer’s Herbarium diluvianum (1709), Jussieu in 1718 was one of the first to give a correct interpretation of fossil remains of ferns found in the coal mines of the Lyons region.
He also recognized the animal nature of ammonites, and his interest in archaeology led him to publish on the various uses of flint by prehistoric tribes, insisting on the extreme patience and care with which some of these early instruments and tools had been made.
Membership
Jussieu was a member of the Royal Society, the Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Academy of Sciences of Prussia.