Career

Collecting localities

Collections

Literature

Biographical data

 

Dumont d’Urville, Jules Sébastien César

 

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 1: Cyclopaedia of collectors)

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 5: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Supplement I)

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 8: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Supplement II)

 

Born: 1790, Condé Sur Noireau, Calvados, France. Died: 1842, Versailles, France.

 

career:

Officer in the French Navy, excellent hydrographer; accompanied the expedition of the ‘Chevrette’ to the Levant in 1819; Lieutenant and Commander of several French expeditions round the world, on the first of which he was especially in charge of the botany department. He is the discoverer of the Astrolabe Bay, named after the vessel of the expedition.

Many plants were named in his honour.

 

Collecting localities:

Voyage in ‘La Coquille’, 1822-25.1 cf. also sub R.P. Lesson. Sailing from Toulon (Aug. 11, 1822) via Brazil, Cape Horn, Chile, Peru, Tahiti, Society Isls; New Ireland (Bismarck Archipelago): Port Praslin (Aug. 12-20, 1823), from where visiting the Isl. Lambonne (= Île aux Marteaux) (Aug. 15); along the coast of New Britain and N. New Guinea to Waigeo(e): Bay of Offack (Sept. 6-15); Moluccas: Boeroe (Sept. 23-Oct. 1, at Cajeli etc.), Ambon (Oct. 4-27); sailing to Port Jackson, New Zealand, via Sydney; Carolines, Isl. Ualan; NW. New Guinea: Doré (July 26-Aug. 9, 1824); E. Java: Soerabaja (Aug. 28-Sept. 10); returning to France by way of Mauritius and St Helena, arriving March 24, 1825.-Voyage in ‘L’Astrolabe’, 1826-29.2 cf. sub P.A. Lesson.-Voyage in ‘L’Astrolabe et La Zélée’, 1837-40.3 cf. sub J.B. Hombron, H. Jacquinot, and E.J.F. le Guillou; collected together in Timor, etc.

 

collections:4

Herb. Paris [P]: 3 000 nos from the ‘Coquille’; Herb. Decand. (Geneva [G]): 188 nos from the ‘Astrolabe’; Herb. Deless. (Geneva [G]): from Singapore, Sumatra, Borneo, etc.; Herb. Caen [CN]; Herb. Berl. [B] (with Herb. Knuth); Herb. Vienna[W]: Plant. Amer. Australis et Novae Zelandiae.

The collections of the 2nd and 3rd voyage were mainly made respectively by P.A. Lesson and J.B. Hombron (liter. on the collections see there).

MSS in the Library of the Nat. Hist. Mus. Paris.

 

literature:

(1) D.F.J. Arago: ‘Rapport sur le voyage de M. Duperrey’ (Paris 1825).

L.I. Duperrey: ‘Voyage autour du monde, execute ... en la corvette de S.M. la Coquille, pendant les années 1822, 1823, 1824 et 1825’ (Paris 1826-34).

R.P. Lesson: ‘Voyage autour du monde sur la corvette la Coquille’ (Paris 1838-39, 2 vols; in vol. 2 a description of the vegetation of Waigeo on p. 114, and of Boeroe, recording useful plants too, on p. 165-170). cf. also Le Moniteur 1848/49, p. 17, 149, 217 and Literature sub R.P. Lesson.

(2) J.S.C. Dumont d’Urville: ‘Voyage de la corvette l’Astrolabe, exécuté par ordre du Roi pendant les années 1826, 1827, 1828, 1829, etc.’ Histoire du voyage (Paris 1830-33).

(3) J.S.C. Dumont d’Urville: ‘Voyage au Pôle Sud et dans l’Océanie sur les corvettes (‘Astrolabe et la Zélée’. Histoire du voyage (Paris 1841-46, 10 vols + 2 vols Atlas). And cf. sub Guillou.

He is the author too of: ‘Voyage pittoresque autour du monde’ (Paris 1839, 2 vols; general résumé of voyages of discovery).

d’Urville gave a lecture at Batavia, cf. Tijdschr. Neerl. Ind. 31, 1840, p. 1-24.

(4) The botanical results of the ‘Coquille’ published by J.B.M. Bory de Saint Vincent (Cryptogames, 1827-29), A. Brongniart (Phanérogames, 1829-34) (cf. Journ. Bot. 39, 1901, p. 206; Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 7, vol. 7, 1901, p. 391 and Maiden in Journ. & Proc. Roy. Soc. N.S.W. 44, 1910, p. 140-142).

For drawings of the Botany of the Coquille see Cl. Nissen, ‘Die botanische Buchillustration’, 1951, vol. 2, p. 53 sub Duperrey.

For literature on the collections of the ‘Astrolabe’ and the ‘Astrolabe et la Zélée’, cf. respectively sub P.A. Lesson and J.B. Hombron.

 

biographical data:

In ‘Voyage au Pôle Sud etc.’ vol. 10 of the ‘Histoire du voyage’, p. 55-148; Ann. Marit. et Colon. 271, partie non officielle, 1842, p. 881-895; Alg. Konst- en Letterbode l8421, p. 385-386; Pritzel, Thes. Lit. Bot., 1872; Journ. & Proc. Roy. Soc. N.S.W. 44, 1910, p. 123-129, w. portr. pl. 9; Backer, Verkl. Woordenb., 1936; in ‘Les explorateurs célèbres’ (Genève/Paris 1947) p. 266 seq. + portr.; Rev. Int. Bot. Appl. Agr. Trop. 31, 1951, p. 7-50 (1952).