Career
In 1899 he obtained his doctorate in natural sciences at the University of Bordeaux, later serving as a professor at the school of medicine in Tours. He conducted botanical and exploratory investigations in the Canary Islands (1904-1906), Tunisia (1907-1910 & 1913) and Morocco (1911-1913). Many of his plant collections were sent to herbaria in Geneva and Paris.
He was the taxonomic authority of numerous botanical taxa.
The genus Pitardia (Batt ex Pit) is named in his honor, as are plants with the specific epithets of pitardii and pitardiana.
