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BRONGNIART, ADOLPHE THEODORE (1801–1876)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 637 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRONGNIART, ADOLPHE See also:THEODORE (1801–1876) , See also:French botanist, son of the geologist See also:Alexandre Brongniart, was See also:born in See also:Paris on the 14th of See also:January 18o1. He soon showed an inclination towards the study,of natural See also:science, devoting himself at first more particularly to See also:geology, and later to See also:botany, thus equipping himself for what was to be the See also:main occupation of his life—the investigation of fossil See also:plants. In 1$26 he graduated as See also:doctor of See also:medicine with a dissertation on the Rhamnaceae; but the career which he adopted was botanical, not medical. In 1831 he became assistant to R. L. See also:Desfontaines at the Musee d'Histoire -Naturelle, and two years later succeeded him as See also:professor, a position which he continued to hold until his See also:death in Paris on the 18th of See also:February 1876. Brongniart was an indefatigable investigator and a prolific writer, so that he See also:left behind him, as the See also:fruit of his labours, a large: number of books and See also:memoirs. As See also:early as 1822 he published a See also:paper on the See also:classification and See also:distribution of fossil plants (Mein. See also:Mus. Hist. Nat. viii.). This was followed by several papers chiefly bearing upon the relation between See also:extinct and existing forms—a See also:line of See also:research which culminated in the publication of the Histoire See also:des vegetaux fossiles, which has earned for him the See also:title of "See also:father of See also:palaeobotany.

This See also:

great See also:work was heralded by a small but most important " Prodrome " (contributed to the See also:Grand Dictionnaire d'Hist. Nat., 1828, t.lvii,) which brought See also:order into See also:chaos by a classification in which the fossil plants were arranged, with remarkably correct insight, along with their nearest living See also:allies, and which forms the basis of all subsequent progress in this direction. It is of especial botanical See also:interest, because, in accordance with See also:Robert See also:Brown's disebveries, the Cycadeae and Coniferae were placed in the new See also:group Fhanerogames gymnospermes. In this See also:book See also:attention was also directed to the See also:succession of forms in the various See also:geological periods, with the important result (stated in See also:modern terms) that in the Palaeozoic See also:period the See also:Pteridophyta are found to predominate; in the Mesozoic, the See also:Gymnosperms; in the See also:Cainozoic, the See also:Angiosperms, a result subsequently more fully stated in his "Tableau des genres de vegetaux fossiles" (D'See also:Orbigny, Dict. Univ. d'Hist. Nat., 1849). But the great Histoire itself was not destined to be more than a See also:colossal fragment; the publication of successive parts proceeded regularly from 1828 to 1837, when the first See also:volume was completed, but after that only three parts of the second volume appeared. Brongniart, no doubt, was overwhelmed with the continually increasing magnitude of the task that he had undertaken. Apart from his more comprehensive See also:works, his most important palaeontological contributions are perhaps his observations on the structure of Sigillaria (See also:Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. i., 1839) and his researches (almost the last he undertook) on fossil seeds, of which a full See also:account was published posthumously in 1880.

His activity was by no means confined to palaeobotany, but extended into all branches of botany, more particularly'See also:

anatomy and phanerogamic taxonomy. Among his achievements in these directions the most notable is the memoir "Sur la See also:generation et le developpement de l'embryon des Phanerogames" (See also:Ann. Sci. Nat. xii., 1827). This is remarkable in that it contains the first account of any value of the development of the See also:pollen; as also a description of the structure of the pollen-See also:grain, the See also:confirmation of G. B. See also:Amici's (1823) See also:discovery of the pollen-See also:tube, the confirmation of R. Brown's views as to the structure of the unimpregnated ovule (with the introduction of the See also:term " See also:sac embryonnaire "); and in that it shows how nearly Brongniart anticipated Amici's subsequent (1846) discovery of the entrance of the pollen-tube into the micropyle, fertilizing the See also:female See also:cell which then develops into the embryo. Of his anatomical works, those of the greatest value are probably the "Recherches stir la structure et See also:les fonctions des feuldles " (Ann. Sci. Nat. xxi., 1830), and the " Nouvelles Recherches stir l'Epiderme " (Ann. Sci.

Nat. i., 1834), in which, among other important observations, the discovery of the cuticle is recorded; and, further, the " Recherches sur l'organisation des tiges des Cycadees " (Ann. Sci. Nat. xvi., 1829), giving the results of the first investigation of the anatomy of those plants. His systematic work is represented by a large number of papers and monographs, many of which relate to the See also:

flora of New See also:Caledonia; and by his Enumeration des genres de plantes cultivees au Musee d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris (1843), which is an interesting landmark in the See also:history of classification in that it forms the starting-point of the See also:system, modified successively by A. Braun, A. W. Eichler and A. Engler, which is now adopted in See also:Germany. In addition to his scientific and professorial labours, Brongniart held various important See also:official posts in connexion with the See also:department of See also:education, and interested himself greatly in agricultural and horticultural matters. With J. V. See also:Audouin and J.

B. A. See also:

Dumas, his future See also:brothers-in-See also:law, he established the Annales des Sciences Naturelles in 1824; he also founded the Societe Botanique de See also:France in 1854, and was its first See also:president. For accounts of his See also:life and work see See also:Bull. de la See also:Soc. Geol. de France, 1876, and La Nature, 1876; the Bulletin de la Soc. Bot. de France for 1876, vol. See also:xxiii., contains a See also:list of his works and the orations pronounced at his funeral. (S. H.

End of Article: BRONGNIART, ADOLPHE THEODORE (1801–1876)

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