Gaspard Bauhin

Gaspard Bauhin , 1560-1624, Swiss botanist and doctor of medicine, of French descent. His early classification of plants by genus and species in his chief work, the Pinax theatri botanici (1623), anticipated the binomial arrangement of Linnaeus. Bauhin reformed anatomical nomenclature, especially that of muscles. His elder brother, Jean Bauhin, 1541-1613, was also a botanist and doctor of medicine. A genus of plants, Bauhinia, was named for the brothers.

Bauhin, Gaspard (1550–1624) A French anatomist and herbalist, who, in 1582, was appointed professor of Greek, and in 1588 of anatomy and botany at Basle; eventually he became rector of the university and dean of his faculty. He wrote Pinax theatri botanici (1623), which is a concordance to earlier nomenclature (still used as such) and an attempt at a formal system of botanical classification. He also completed 3 of the 12 parts he had planned of Theatrum botanicum, although only one part was published, in 1658. His son, Jean Gaspard Bauhin (1606–85) also became professor of botany at Basle. Bauhinia is named after the Bauhin family.