Darwin Correspondence Project

Swiss botanist. Studied botany and plant physiology at Edinburgh, Heidelberg, and Bonn, 1863–8, receiving a doctorate from Bonn in 1867 with a thesis on the composition of the pigment in chlorophyll. Translated German botanical works into French. Collaborated with Alphonse de Candolle on Monographiae phanerogamarum. Specialised in the Leguminosae of Paraguay; wrote on the flora of Paraguay, Columbia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Mexico. Created a garden specialising in xerophytes at his family estate at Crest, Jussy. Deputy to the great council of Geneva, 1878–86; mayor of the canton of Jussy from 1878.