D'Urville, Jules, Sebastien Cesar Dumont (1790 - 1842)

Circumnavigator and botanist. Born 23rd May, 1790, at Conde sur Noireau, Calvados, and was killed on 12th May, 1842, in a train which caught fire between Paris and Versailles. There is an account of his life in Tas. Journ. II, 75.

A list of his works includes:-

Memoires sur la flore des iles Malouines;
Memoire sur la distribution geographique des fougeres a la surface du globe. (Ann. Sc. nat. t. 6, p. 51, 1835);
Reports on the voyage of the "Astrolabe" (1829) and of the "Astrolabe and Zelee" (1840).

He was an indefatigable collector as well as a cryptogamic botanist.

The following plants bear his name :-

Quinetia urvillei, Cass;
Centrolepis urvillei, Hieron = Desveauxia urvillei, Steud. = Centrolepis drummondii, Hieron;
Eragrostris urvillei, Steud.= Eurostorrhiza urvillei, Steud. = Caustis pentandra, R. Br.;
Gahnia urvilleana, Kunth. =Isolepis urvillei, Steud. = Scirpus urvillei, Boeckel = S. inundatus, Spreng.;
Plinthanthesis urvillei. Steud. = D'urvillaea potatorum, Aresch. (figured in Harvey's Phycol. Australica)

Source: Maiden, J.H. (1910) Records of the earlier French botanists as regards Australian plants. Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales for 1910. 44:123-155.
Portrait Photo: Maiden, J.H. (1910) Records of earlier French botanists as regards Australian plants, J. Proc. Roy. Soc. NSW, 44, plates.