Background
Matthieu Bonafous was born on March 7, 1793 in Lyon, France.
Matthieu Bonafous was born on March 7, 1793 in Lyon, France.
Bonafous wrote Histoire Naturelle, Agricole et Économique du Mäis, a monograph about maize, in 1836. In it, he showed that corn was able to adapt to hostile weather conditions. Foreign example, it could grow in sand (as in New Jersey), in humid climate (like Colombia) or in cold weather (like the Apennine Mountains).
He also wrote about mulberry trees and their use for raising silkworms in De la culture des Mûriers (1822) and Traité de l"éducation des Vers à Soie et de la culture du Mûrier (1840).
The plant Bonafousia was named after him. He died on March 23, 1852.