Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de

views updated

Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de (1656–1708) A French botanist who became a professor at the Jardin du Roi in Paris and is remembered for producing a system of plant classification and nomenclature in the 1690s. His Institutiones Rei Herbariae (1700) helped to bridge the gap between the work of Bauhin and Linnaeus. He also wrote A Voyage into the Levant (1718) in which he was the first to describe the common azalea and rhododendron, as well as other plants he collected during this journey. The tribe Tournefortia of the Boraginaceae was named for him.

More From encyclopedia.com