Charles Naudin

Personal

Vocation

French naturalist and botanist whose main publication, Mémoire sur les hybrides du règne végétal which appeared in Recueil des savants étrangers, won him the Grand Prize of the Institute of Botany in 1862. The study of hereditary phenomena according to his designs is now known as Naudinism, which asserts that species are formed in the same way as our cultivated varieties, whose formation Naudin attributed to systematic selection by Man. He was interested in the diversification of plants and in particular of pumpkins. Contrary to the generally accepted view, he established the non-permanence of hybrids. The botanist also published a series of memoirs dealing with cosmic influences, and published numerous articles in the Journal of Horticulture. He worked on various treaties and codes of agriculture and horticulture. His handbook Manuel de l'acclimateur (Paris, 1888) is a reference work on the acclimatization of the Riviera in the 19th century. He died on 19 March 1899 in Antibes, aged 83. Link to Wikipedia biography