Career

Collecting localities

Collections

Literature

Biographical data

 

Lahaie, Félix de (sometimes Delahaye or Lahaye)

 

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

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

 

Born: 1767, Caumont (S.-Inf.), France. Died: 1829, Montreuil, France.

 

career:

Student gardener in the ‘Jardin des plantes’ at Rouen; 5 years later in the ‘Jardin du Roi’ at Paris, and Director of the Botany School there; gardener of the expedition in ‘La Recherche’ and ‘L’Espérance’, 1791-94 (itiner. etc. cf. sub Billardière; cf. also sub Ventenat). Lahaie was not interned at Semarang; when la Billardière had to go to the latter place, he left the bread-fruit trees in his care.1 He returned to France not before 1797, departing from Java on Jan. 9 of that year, staying some time in Île de France. In 1798 chief gardener of the Empress Joséphine at Trianon; in 1805 at Malmaison; in 1826 the garden was sold and Lahaie became manager of a horticultural establishment at Montreuil, near Versailles. His large herbarium was scattered after his death.

He is commemorated in an islet and a cape in the D’Entrecasteaux Islands.

 

Collecting localities:

According to his journal2 he collected in the following Malaysian localities: New Ireland (Bismarck Archipelago) (July 17-24, 1792); Ambon (Sept. 6-Oct. 12, 1792); Waigeo(u) (Aug. 15-23, 1793); Bouro(u) (= Boeroe) (Sept. 3-? 15, 1793); E. Java: Soerabaja (Oct. 29, 1793-Aug. 1794); Java (1794-96); W. Java: Batavia (June 1796-Jan. 1797). The dates given for Waigeo and Boeroe do not agree with those of de la Billardière!

 

collections:

Herb. Paris [P]: 1180 plants + journal (purch. 1879 from an antiquarian!).2 His original herbarium consisted of 2699 plants, including the nos 699-786 from New Ireland, nos 787-1113 from Ambon, nos 1517-1669 from Boeroe, nos 1670-1962 from Soerabaja (E. Java), nos 1963-2296 from Java, nos 2297-2419 from Batavia (W.Java), and the subsequent numbers from Île de France.

Herb. Deless. (Geneva [G]): plants collected by Lahaie in Ambon and Boeroe (pres. with Herb. P.E. Ventenat); Herb. Decand. (Geneva [G]); Herb. Mus. Neuchâtel [NEU] (Java and Mauritius).3

Lasègue already mentioned that he brought home an extensive collection of living and dried plants.4 After his death a small seed collection went to the Nat. School of Horticulture at Versailles.

Some plants labelled ‘Java’, virtually came from Mauritius.

 

literature:

(1) cf. J.J. de la Billardière: ‘Relation du voyage à la recherche de la Pérouse ... pendant lee années 1791 et 1792 etc.’ vol. 2, 1799, p. 320.

(2) A. Guillaumin: ‘Un membre méconnu de l’Expédition a la recherche de la Pérouse: le Jardinier Lahaie’ (Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 1910, p. 356-358); ‘Notice complémentaire sur le jardinier Delahaye (alias Lahaie)’ (l.c. 28, 1922, p. 109-110).

cf. MS. ‘Catalogue-Journal de botanique’ in Arch. Herb. (Phanérog.) Paris.

(3) cf. Sydow, Deutscher Botaniker Kalender, 1899, p. 171.

(4) cf. Lasègue, Mus. Bot. Deless., 1845, p. 78, 307, 308.

Lahaie: ‘Notes des graines récoltées dans le voyage autour du monde’ (MS. in Libr. Nat. Hist. Mus. Paris).

 

biographical data:

le Texnier: ‘Le Jardin de la Malmaison. Josephine, Delahaye et Bonpland’ (in ‘Notices sur les jardiniers célèbres et lee amateurs de jardins’, Paris 1906; repr. from the ‘Moniteur d’Horticulture’); Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 1910, p. 356-358; and l.c. 28, 1922,p. 109-110.