Profession: botanist

A pioneering botanist and innovator in the classification of plants, Magnol was the first to use the term ‘family’ of a natural grouping. The magnolia was named in his honour, by Linnaeus. Based most of his life in Montpellier, renowned for the study of botany and medicine, Magnol’s best-known students were Tournefort and Jussieu; Tournefort dying relatively young, Magnol succeeded him at the Jardin du Roi in Paris before returning to Montpellier. Ray (who was impressed by him), Sloane and Locke (who both became friends) were among those who visited him, Locke receiving seeds for the physic garden at Oxford.

Jussieu, a modest man, developed a naming system for plants that, unlike Linnaeus’s, was morphologically-based. Trained in medicine, he went with his elder brother (already a botanist) on a research trip to Spain, developing there into a botanist himself. Lamarck (his student and assistant for 18 years), Lavoisier and Guettard all studied with him; Buffon and Duhamel du Monceau were Jardin des Plantes colleagues. Sloane and Linnaeus (who attended his lectures and greatly respected him) corresponded. Réaumur prompted his investigation of fresh-water polyps (which he correctly identified as animal), while Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu was his nephew and successor.

Much of Jussieu’s classification of flowering plants is still in use. Bernard de Jussieu was an uncle and an important influence. Jussieu was godfather to one of Lamarck’s sons; Lamarck and Fourcroy were colleagues of Jussieu at the Jardin des Plantes, while Berthollet and Fourcroy were with Jussieu fellow-members of a project led by Lavoisier to better understand the role of vegetation in the natural cycle. Hooker and Owen were met on visits to England. De Candolle was an early supporter of Jussieu’s system, Banks and Ampère correspondents, and Bonpland a student then friend.

A chance conversation with a friend of his father Augustin de Candolle convinced him to change his mind and pursue botany as a career. De Candolle dined with Darwin in London (Henslow another guest) and had an extensive correspondence with him (including about de Candolle’s ability to move his scalp muscularly). Wallace also corresponded, as did Galton — the latter engaging in a lively exchange of views through which de Candolle persuaded him that he’d overstressed heredity against environment. Gray was another correspondent, and met him three times. Nägeli was one of his students.

William Hooker was his father (and predecessor at Kew), Henslow his father-in-law. He went on Ross’s Antarctic expedition, and catalogued plants from the Galápagos Islands for his hero Darwin, becoming his lifelong best friend and confidant, later advising him on the most diplomatic way to present his theory of natural selection and establish his primacy over Wallace. Huxley (another close friend of Hooker’s ) was, with him, Darwin’s strongest supporter. Fitch illustrated his work (until a dispute over pay ended the relationship), while Gray (a professional colleague) and Galton were both close friends.