Gaston de Saporta

Gaston de Saporta (28 July 1823 – 26 January 1895) was a French aristocrat, palaeobotanist and non-fiction writer.

Early life
(Louis Charles Joseph) Gaston de Saporta born in the Château de Montvert in Saint-Zacharie, Var, on July 28, 1823. He was a member of the Provençal nobility. His father was Adolphe Charles François Anne de Saporta (1800-1879) and his mother, Irène Boyer de Fonscolombe de La Mole (1799-1879). He grew up in the Hôtel Boyer de Fonscolombe, a listed hôtel particulier at 21 Rue Gaston de Saporta in Aix-en-Provence, where he resided all his life.

Career
As a palaeobotanist, he was a supporter of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and showed the transformation of plant species in different eras. He corresponded with Darwin. In 1877, Darwin wrote a supportive letter to Saporta which stated that "your idea that dicotyledonous plants were not developed in force until sucking insects had been evolved seems to me a splendid one."

He wrote many books about botany from the 1860s to the 1890s. He became a member of the French Academy of Sciences. Moreover, he often visited the National Museum of Natural History in Paris to attend conferences, and paved the way for the inauguration of the Museum of Natural History in Aix-en-Provence.

Interested in the aristocracy, he also wrote a book about the family of Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (1626-1696).

Fossil Plants of Portugal
He was the author of the study of the fossil plants collected by Paul Choffat in the Portuguese Mesozoic, which made it possible to determine the age of the respective soils. His work the discovery of dicotyledonous species in the Lower Cretaceous of Cercal (Ourém) stands out, suggesting that the origin of this group was in Portugal. He often described numerous Mesozoic deposits for the first time, including Anadia, Paço (Sangalhos), Raposeira, Vacariça, Cabanas de Torres, Moita dos Ferreiros (Lourinhã), Buarcos (Figueira da Foz) and Alcântara (Lisbon). In a single article from 1894 entitled "Flore fossile du Portugal - Nouvelles contributions à la flore mésozoïque", Saporta described an impressive number of new plant taxa for the Mesozoic of Portugal. In what was one of the scientific articles with the most species named, he described four new genera - Delgadopsis, Choffatia, Phlebomeris and Ravenalospermum - based on Portuguese holotypes, and 265 new species, making him the most prolific paleontologist in terms of the number of new taxa from Portugal.

Personal life
He was married to Valentine de Forbin la Barben. He was widowed in 1850, and got remarried to Émilie de Gabrielli de Gubbio. They had a son, Antoine de Saporta (1855-1914), who became a writer.

He died in Aix-en-Provence on January 26, 1895.

Legacy

 * The Rue Gaston de Saporta in Aix-en-Provence is named in his honour.