Augustin François César Prouvençal de Saint-Hilaire (1799-1853)

A French botanist and traveller, was born at Orleans, France. He began to publish memoirs on botanical subjects at an early age. Between 1816 and 1822 and again in 1830, he travelled in South America, especially in south and central Brazil, and the results of his study of the rich flora of the regions through which he passed appeared in several books and numerous articles in scientific journals.

A significant contribution was made for South American Drosera by Saint-Hilaire. In his first voyage, he explored the Brazilian back-lands, exploring ca. 9000 km from north-eastern Brazil to the Rio de la Plata. He was able to gather 24,000 specimens of plants (comprising 6000 species), as well as 2000 birds, 16,000 insects and 135 mammals, plus many reptiles, molluscs and fish. Most of these were species new to science. In the following years, Saint- Hilaire devoted himself to the study, classification, description and publication of this huge body of material. Saint-Hilaire was credited with describing and publishing 10 species of Drosera, including such species as Drosera graminifolia and D. villosa.

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Augustin François César Prouvençal de Saint-Hilaire. Painting by Henrique Manzo.