A. P. de Candolle
Encyclopedia
Augustin Pyramus de Candolle also spelled Augustin Pyrame de Candolle (4 February 1778 – 9 September 1841) was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines
launched Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at an herbarium
. Within a couple of years Candolle had established a new genus, and he went on to document hundreds of plant families and create a new natural plant classification system. Although Candolle's main focus was botany, he also contributed to related fields such as phytogeography
, agronomy
, paleontology
, medical botany, and economic botany
.
Candolle originated the idea of "Nature's war", which influenced Charles Darwin
and the principle of natural selection
. Candolle recognized that multiple species may develop similar characteristics that did not appear in a common evolutionary ancestor; this was later termed homology
. During his work with plants, Candolle noticed that plant leaf movements follow a near-24-hour cycle in constant light, suggesting that an internal biological clock
exists. Though many scientists doubted Candolle's findings, experiments over a century later demonstrated that the internal biological clock indeed exists.
Candolle's descendants continued his work on plant classification. Alphonse de Candolle and Casimir Pyrame de Candolle
contributed to the Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis
, a catalog of plants begun by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle.
, Switzerland, to Augustin de Candolle, a former official, and his wife, Louise Eléonore Brière. His family descended from one of the ancient families of Provence
in France, but relocated to Geneva at the end of the 16th century to escape religious persecution.
At age seven Candolle contracted of a severe case of hydrocephalus
, which significantly affected his childhood. Nevertheless, he is said to have had great aptitude for learning, distinguishing himself in school with his rapid acquisition of knowledge in classical and general literature and his ability to write fine poetry. In 1794, he began his scientific studies at the Collège Calvin
, where he studied under Jean Pierre Étienne Vaucher
, who later inspired Candolle to make botanical science the chief pursuit of his life.
. His botanical career began with the help of René Louiche Desfontaines
, who recommended Candolle for work in the herbarium
of Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle
during the summer of 1798. The position elevated Candolle's reputation and also led to valuable instruction from Desfontaines himself. Candolle established his first genus, Senebiera, in 1799.
Candolle's first productions, Plantarum historia succulentarum (4 vols., 1799) and Astragalogia (1802), brought him to the notice of Georges Cuvier
and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
. Candolle, with Cuvier's approval, acted as deputy at the Collège de France
in 1802. Lamarck entrusted him with the publication of the third edition of the Flore française (1803–1815). In the introduction to this work, Principes élémentaires de botanique, Candolle proposed a natural method of plant classification as opposed to the artificial Linnaean
method. The premise of Candolle's method is that taxa do not fall along a linear scale; they are discrete, not continuous.
In 1804, Candolle published his Essai sur les propriétés médicales des plantes and was granted a doctor of medicine degree by the medical faculty of Paris. Two years later, he published Synopsis plantarum in flora Gallica descriptarum. Candolle then spent the next six summers making a botanical and agricultural survey of France at the request of the French government, which was published in 1813. In 1807 he was appointed professor of botany in the medical faculty of the University of Montpellier
, where he would later become the first chair of botany in 1810. While in Montpellier
, Candolle published his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique (Elementary Theory of Botany, 1813), which introduced a new classification system and the word taxonomy
. Candolle moved back to Geneva in 1816 and in the following year was invited by the government of the Canton of Geneva to fill the newly created chair of natural history.
Candolle spent the rest of his life in an attempt to elaborate and complete his natural system of botanical classification. Candolle published initial work in his Regni vegetabillis systema naturale, but after two volumes he realized he could not complete the project on such a large scale. Consequently, he began his less extensive Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis
in 1824. However, he was only able to finish only seven volumes, or two-thirds of the whole. Even so, he was able to characterize over one hundred families of plants, helping to lay the empirical basis of general botany. Although Candolle's main focus was botany, throughout his career he also dabbled in fields related to botany, such as phytogeography
, agronomy
, paleontology
, medical botany, and economic botany
.
, Augustin de Candolle's grandson, also contributed to the Prodromus through his detailed, extensive research and characterization of the Piperaceae
family of plants. Augustin de Candolle's great-grandson, Richard Emile Augustin de Candolle, was also a botanist.
Augustin de Candolle died on 9 September 1841 in Geneva, after being sick for many years.
, both plants.
Candollea, a scientific journal that publishes papers on systematic botany and phylotaxonomy, was named after Candolle and his descendants in honor of their contribution to the field of botany.
studied de Candolle's "natural system" of classification in 1826 when at the University of Edinburgh
, and in the inception of Darwin's theory
in 1838 he considered "the warring of the species", adding that it was even more strongly conveyed by Thomas Malthus
, producing the pressures that Darwin later called natural selection
. In 1839 de Candolle visited Britain and Darwin invited him to dinner, allowing the two scientists the opportunity to discuss the idea.
Candolle was also among the first to recognize the difference between the morphological and physiological characteristics of organs. He ascribed plant morphology as being related to the number of organs and their positions relative to each other rather than to their various physiological properties. Consequently, this made him the first to attempt to attribute specific reasons for structural and numerical relationships amongst organs, and thus to distinguish between major and minor aspects of plant symmetry. To account for modifications of symmetry in parts of different plants, an occurrence that could hinder the discovery of an evolutionary relationship, de Candolle introduced the concept of homology
.
. Building upon earlier work on plant circadian leaf movements contributed by such scientists as Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan
and Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau
, Candolle observed in 1832 that the plant Mimosa pudica
had a free-running period of leaf opening and closing of approximately 22–23 hours in constant light, significantly less than the approximate 24-hour period of the Earth's light-dark cycles. Since the period was shorter than 24 hours, he hypothesized that a different clock had to be responsible for the rhythm; the shortened period was not entrained—coordinated—by environmental cues, thus the clock appeared to be endogenous. Despite these findings, a number of scientists continued to search for "factor X", an unknown exogenous factor associated with the earth's rotation that was driving circadian oscillations in the absence of a light dark schedule, until the mid twentieth century. In the mid 1920's, Erwin Bunning
repeated Candolle's findings and came to similar conclusions, and studies that showed the persistence of circadian rhythm in the South Pole and in a space lab further confirmed the existence of oscillations in the absence of environmental cues. In 1926, Maynard Johnson provided the first demonstration of the endogenous nature of circadian rhythms in mammals from rhythms observed in mice. However, the location of this endogenous clock and its method of operation remained unknown for another 100 years after Candolle's findings. Confirmation of an internal pacemaker arrived in 1972 when Robert Moore and Irving Zucker both independently localized the suprachiasmatic nucleus
as the endogenous oscillator in rats through lesion experiments.
René Louiche Desfontaines
René Louiche Desfontaines was a French botanist.Desfontaines was born near Tremblay in Brittany. He attended the Collège de Rennes and in 1773 went to Paris to study medicine. His interest in botany originated from lectures at the Jardin des Plantes given by Louis Guillaume Lemonnier...
launched Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at an herbarium
Herbarium
In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...
. Within a couple of years Candolle had established a new genus, and he went on to document hundreds of plant families and create a new natural plant classification system. Although Candolle's main focus was botany, he also contributed to related fields such as phytogeography
Phytogeography
Phytogeography , also called geobotany, is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution of plant species...
, agronomy
Agronomy
Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, feed, fiber, and reclamation. Agronomy encompasses work in the areas of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. Agronomy is the application of a combination of sciences like biology,...
, paleontology
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
, medical botany, and economic botany
Economic botany
Economic botany can be very broadly defined as a study of relationships between plants and people. Economic botany contributes significantly to anthropology, biology, conservation, botany, and other fields of science...
.
Candolle originated the idea of "Nature's war", which influenced Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
and the principle of natural selection
Natural selection
Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
. Candolle recognized that multiple species may develop similar characteristics that did not appear in a common evolutionary ancestor; this was later termed homology
Homology (biology)
Homology forms the basis of organization for comparative biology. In 1843, Richard Owen defined homology as "the same organ in different animals under every variety of form and function". Organs as different as a bat's wing, a seal's flipper, a cat's paw and a human hand have a common underlying...
. During his work with plants, Candolle noticed that plant leaf movements follow a near-24-hour cycle in constant light, suggesting that an internal biological clock
Circadian rhythm
A circadian rhythm, popularly referred to as body clock, is an endogenously driven , roughly 24-hour cycle in biochemical, physiological, or behavioural processes. Circadian rhythms have been widely observed in plants, animals, fungi and cyanobacteria...
exists. Though many scientists doubted Candolle's findings, experiments over a century later demonstrated that the internal biological clock indeed exists.
Candolle's descendants continued his work on plant classification. Alphonse de Candolle and Casimir Pyrame de Candolle
Anne Casimir Pyrame de Candolle
Anne Casimir Pyrame de Candolle was a Swiss botanist, the son of Alphonse Pyrame de Candolle....
contributed to the Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis
Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis
Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis, also known by its standard botanical abbreviation Prodr. , is a 17-volume treatise on botany initiated by A. P. de Candolle. De Candolle intended it as a summary of all known seed plants, encompassing taxonomy, ecology, evolution and biogeography....
, a catalog of plants begun by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle.
Early life
Augustin Pyramus de Candolle was born on February 4, 1778 in GenevaGeneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Switzerland, to Augustin de Candolle, a former official, and his wife, Louise Eléonore Brière. His family descended from one of the ancient families of Provence
Provence
Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
in France, but relocated to Geneva at the end of the 16th century to escape religious persecution.
At age seven Candolle contracted of a severe case of hydrocephalus
Hydrocephalus
Hydrocephalus , also known as "water in the brain," is a medical condition in which there is an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles, or cavities, of the brain. This may cause increased intracranial pressure inside the skull and progressive enlargement of the head,...
, which significantly affected his childhood. Nevertheless, he is said to have had great aptitude for learning, distinguishing himself in school with his rapid acquisition of knowledge in classical and general literature and his ability to write fine poetry. In 1794, he began his scientific studies at the Collège Calvin
Collège Calvin
The Collège Calvin, formerly the Collège de Genève, is the oldest public secondary school in Geneva. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin.-History:...
, where he studied under Jean Pierre Étienne Vaucher
Jean Pierre Étienne Vaucher
Jean Pierre Étienne Vaucher was a Swiss Protestant pastor and botanist who was a native of Geneva.He studied theology at Geneva, and from 1795 to 1821 was a pastor at the Church of Saint-Gervais. From 1808 to 1840 he was a professor of church history at the University of Geneva, and for several...
, who later inspired Candolle to make botanical science the chief pursuit of his life.
Career in botany
In 1796, Candolle moved to Paris after receiving an invitation from French geologist Déodat Gratet de DolomieuDéodat Gratet de Dolomieu
Dieudonné Sylvain Guy Tancrède de Dolomieu usually known as Déodat de Dolomieu was a French geologist; the rock dolomite and the largest summital crater on the Piton de la Fournaise volcano were named after him.Déodat de Dolomieu was born in Dauphiné, France, one of 11 children of the Marquis de...
. His botanical career began with the help of René Louiche Desfontaines
René Louiche Desfontaines
René Louiche Desfontaines was a French botanist.Desfontaines was born near Tremblay in Brittany. He attended the Collège de Rennes and in 1773 went to Paris to study medicine. His interest in botany originated from lectures at the Jardin des Plantes given by Louis Guillaume Lemonnier...
, who recommended Candolle for work in the herbarium
Herbarium
In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...
of Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle
Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle
Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle was an 18th century French botanist and magistrate. Born into an affluent upper-class Parisian family, connections with the French Royal Court secured him the position of Superindent of Parisian Waters and Forests at the age of twenty-six...
during the summer of 1798. The position elevated Candolle's reputation and also led to valuable instruction from Desfontaines himself. Candolle established his first genus, Senebiera, in 1799.
Candolle's first productions, Plantarum historia succulentarum (4 vols., 1799) and Astragalogia (1802), brought him to the notice of Georges Cuvier
Georges Cuvier
Georges Chrétien Léopold Dagobert Cuvier or Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier , known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist...
and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de la Marck , often known simply as Lamarck, was a French naturalist...
. Candolle, with Cuvier's approval, acted as deputy at the Collège de France
Collège de France
The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
in 1802. Lamarck entrusted him with the publication of the third edition of the Flore française (1803–1815). In the introduction to this work, Principes élémentaires de botanique, Candolle proposed a natural method of plant classification as opposed to the artificial Linnaean
Carolus Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
method. The premise of Candolle's method is that taxa do not fall along a linear scale; they are discrete, not continuous.
In 1804, Candolle published his Essai sur les propriétés médicales des plantes and was granted a doctor of medicine degree by the medical faculty of Paris. Two years later, he published Synopsis plantarum in flora Gallica descriptarum. Candolle then spent the next six summers making a botanical and agricultural survey of France at the request of the French government, which was published in 1813. In 1807 he was appointed professor of botany in the medical faculty of the University of Montpellier
University of Montpellier
The University of Montpellier was a French university in Montpellier in the Languedoc-Roussillon région of the south of France. Its present-day successor universities are the University of Montpellier 1, Montpellier 2 University and Paul Valéry University, Montpellier III.-History:The university...
, where he would later become the first chair of botany in 1810. While in Montpellier
Montpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
, Candolle published his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique (Elementary Theory of Botany, 1813), which introduced a new classification system and the word taxonomy
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
. Candolle moved back to Geneva in 1816 and in the following year was invited by the government of the Canton of Geneva to fill the newly created chair of natural history.
Candolle spent the rest of his life in an attempt to elaborate and complete his natural system of botanical classification. Candolle published initial work in his Regni vegetabillis systema naturale, but after two volumes he realized he could not complete the project on such a large scale. Consequently, he began his less extensive Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis
Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis
Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis, also known by its standard botanical abbreviation Prodr. , is a 17-volume treatise on botany initiated by A. P. de Candolle. De Candolle intended it as a summary of all known seed plants, encompassing taxonomy, ecology, evolution and biogeography....
in 1824. However, he was only able to finish only seven volumes, or two-thirds of the whole. Even so, he was able to characterize over one hundred families of plants, helping to lay the empirical basis of general botany. Although Candolle's main focus was botany, throughout his career he also dabbled in fields related to botany, such as phytogeography
Phytogeography
Phytogeography , also called geobotany, is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution of plant species...
, agronomy
Agronomy
Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, feed, fiber, and reclamation. Agronomy encompasses work in the areas of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. Agronomy is the application of a combination of sciences like biology,...
, paleontology
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
, medical botany, and economic botany
Economic botany
Economic botany can be very broadly defined as a study of relationships between plants and people. Economic botany contributes significantly to anthropology, biology, conservation, botany, and other fields of science...
.
Later life
Augustin de Candolle was the first of four generations of botanists in the Candolle dynasty. His son, Alphonse de Candolle, whom he fathered with his wife, Mademoiselle Torras, eventually succeeded to his father's chair in botany and continued the Prodromus. Casimir Pyrame de CandolleAnne Casimir Pyrame de Candolle
Anne Casimir Pyrame de Candolle was a Swiss botanist, the son of Alphonse Pyrame de Candolle....
, Augustin de Candolle's grandson, also contributed to the Prodromus through his detailed, extensive research and characterization of the Piperaceae
Piperaceae
The Piperaceae, also known as the pepper family, is a large family of flowering plants. The group contains roughly 3,610 currently accepted species in five genera. The vast majority of peppers can be found within the two main genera: Piper and Peperomia .Members of the Piperaceae may be small...
family of plants. Augustin de Candolle's great-grandson, Richard Emile Augustin de Candolle, was also a botanist.
Augustin de Candolle died on 9 September 1841 in Geneva, after being sick for many years.
Legacy
He is remembered in the genera Candollea and CandolleodendronCandolleodendron
Candolleodendron is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. It belongs to the sub family Faboideae....
, both plants.
Candollea, a scientific journal that publishes papers on systematic botany and phylotaxonomy, was named after Candolle and his descendants in honor of their contribution to the field of botany.
Classification system
Candolle was the first to put forward the idea of "Nature's war", writing of plants being "at war one with another" with the meaning of different species fighting each other for space and resources. Charles DarwinCharles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
studied de Candolle's "natural system" of classification in 1826 when at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
, and in the inception of Darwin's theory
Inception of Darwin's theory
The inception of Darwin's theory occurred during an intensively busy period which began when Charles Darwin returned from the survey voyage of the Beagle, with his reputation as a fossil collector and geologist already established...
in 1838 he considered "the warring of the species", adding that it was even more strongly conveyed by Thomas Malthus
Thomas Malthus
The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus FRS was an English scholar, influential in political economy and demography. Malthus popularized the economic theory of rent....
, producing the pressures that Darwin later called natural selection
Natural selection
Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
. In 1839 de Candolle visited Britain and Darwin invited him to dinner, allowing the two scientists the opportunity to discuss the idea.
Candolle was also among the first to recognize the difference between the morphological and physiological characteristics of organs. He ascribed plant morphology as being related to the number of organs and their positions relative to each other rather than to their various physiological properties. Consequently, this made him the first to attempt to attribute specific reasons for structural and numerical relationships amongst organs, and thus to distinguish between major and minor aspects of plant symmetry. To account for modifications of symmetry in parts of different plants, an occurrence that could hinder the discovery of an evolutionary relationship, de Candolle introduced the concept of homology
Homology (biology)
Homology forms the basis of organization for comparative biology. In 1843, Richard Owen defined homology as "the same organ in different animals under every variety of form and function". Organs as different as a bat's wing, a seal's flipper, a cat's paw and a human hand have a common underlying...
.
Chronobiology
Candolle also made contributions to the field of chronobiologyChronobiology
Chronobiology is a field of biology that examines periodic phenomena in living organisms and their adaptation to solar- and lunar-related rhythms. These cycles are known as biological rhythms. Chronobiology comes from the ancient Greek χρόνος , and biology, which pertains to the study, or science,...
. Building upon earlier work on plant circadian leaf movements contributed by such scientists as Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan
Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan
Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan , a French geophysicist, astronomer and most notably, chronobiologist, was born in the town of Béziers on November 26, 1678...
and Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau
Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau
Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau , was a French physician, naval engineer and botanist. As a botanist his standard abbreviation is Duhamel...
, Candolle observed in 1832 that the plant Mimosa pudica
Mimosa pudica
Mimosa pudica , is a creeping annual or perennial herb often grown for its curiosity value: the compound leaves fold inward and droop when touched or shaken, re-opening minutes later...
had a free-running period of leaf opening and closing of approximately 22–23 hours in constant light, significantly less than the approximate 24-hour period of the Earth's light-dark cycles. Since the period was shorter than 24 hours, he hypothesized that a different clock had to be responsible for the rhythm; the shortened period was not entrained—coordinated—by environmental cues, thus the clock appeared to be endogenous. Despite these findings, a number of scientists continued to search for "factor X", an unknown exogenous factor associated with the earth's rotation that was driving circadian oscillations in the absence of a light dark schedule, until the mid twentieth century. In the mid 1920's, Erwin Bunning
Erwin Bünning
Dr Erwin Bünning was a German biologist. His pioneering research in botany and plant physiology resulted in several contributions in phototropism, phototaxis, differentiation, growth substances and even Tropical Forests...
repeated Candolle's findings and came to similar conclusions, and studies that showed the persistence of circadian rhythm in the South Pole and in a space lab further confirmed the existence of oscillations in the absence of environmental cues. In 1926, Maynard Johnson provided the first demonstration of the endogenous nature of circadian rhythms in mammals from rhythms observed in mice. However, the location of this endogenous clock and its method of operation remained unknown for another 100 years after Candolle's findings. Confirmation of an internal pacemaker arrived in 1972 when Robert Moore and Irving Zucker both independently localized the suprachiasmatic nucleus
Suprachiasmatic nucleus
The suprachiasmatic nucleus or nuclei, abbreviated SCN, is a tiny region on the brain's midline, situated directly above the optic chiasm. It is responsible for controlling circadian rhythms...
as the endogenous oscillator in rats through lesion experiments.