User:DavidAnstiss/Paul Victor Fournier

Paul Victor Fournier was a French botanist (1877–1964)

Canon Paul-Victor Fournier is a French botanist, born on December 29 , 1877 in Damrémont (Haute-Marne) and died on May 20 , 1964 in Poinson-lès-Grancey (Haute-Marne). His major work, 'Les quatre flores de France', published in 1940, remains a reference work for the identification of plants in the field.

Biography
Paul Fournier studied at the Petit Séminaire then at the Grand Séminaire in Langres. He was ordained a priest on 29 June 1901 and then continued his studies at the University of Dijon. From 1903, he was successively professor at the Petit Séminaire de Langres at the Saint-Joseph college in Poitiers and then at the college of the Marist Fathers of Lyon. He was mobilized as a stretcher bearer and nurse during the First World War. He then became a professor at Saint-Dizier and was appointed honorary canon of the diocese of Langres in 1921. Finally, he became a professor at the Stanislas college in Paris in 1928. He retired from teaching in 1930 to devote himself to his literary work and scientists. He left the Paris region to settle in the village of Poinson-lès-Grancey in 1937 where he became parish priest.

A literary by training, Paul Fournier was a passionate naturalist. From 1924 to 1927, he published the " Bréviaire du botaniste", which earned him the title of Doctor of Science at the University of Paris. The theses he defended at the Sorbonne in 1932 to obtain his Doctorate of Letters were also devoted to botany: "The contribution of French missionaries to the progress of natural sciences in the 19th and 20th centuries" and "Naturalist travelers of the French clergy before the revolution ”. From 1932 to 1948, he oversaw and wrote the newspaper Le Monde des Plantes . Registered with the Société botanique de France, he was a member of its council in 1933, then became one of its vice-presidents in 1936. He is the author of around forty notes in the Bulletins of Société Botanique de France. In consecration of his work, he was elected Corresponding Member of the botanical section of the Academy of Sciences in 1960.

His most significant contribution to botany remains Les quatre flores de la France, whose publication began in the form of booklets in October 1934 to end in October 1940. This complete flora but of a reduced volume, easily transportable in the field, was the ideal complement to the large flora of the time ( Descriptive and illustrated flora of the France of Corsica and the bordering regions (1901-1906, at Klincksiek, Paris) by Hippolyte Coste, Complete flora illustrated in color from France, Switzerland, Belgium (1912-1935, at E. Orlhac, Paris) by Gaston Bonnier ). Republished several times, it has never been updated (except for a few notes at the end of the 1961 edition) but an "Updated index" has been published ("Updated index on Flora Europæa & the Kerguélen index" by Monique Balayer & Laura Napoli, Ginebre n ° 17, 1996, Catalan Society of Botanical & Plant Ecology). The illustrations of the author, very reduced in the first edition (and whose quality of reproduction has diminished from reissue to reissue…), have been reproduced at their actual size in the version of the work in two volumes (“ 2nd edition ”) published by Lechevalier in 1977.

Despite its age, the "Flora Fournier" remains a reference used in the field and at home by a very large number of botanists. It is without question the most practical of the flora in France. However, if one wishes to use it, it is preferable to obtain the 1977 edition, even if it is less "portable" than that of 1961.

Books

 * Breviary of the botanist or Pocket florule of complex genera and species and their hybrids, 1924-1927. With the author, Saint-Dizier, 632 p. Reissued under the title Complementary flora of the French plain. Complex genera, collective species, hybrids. Classification of subspecies and varieties. Paris region, West, Center, North, East , 1928. Lechevalier, Paris, XII + 632 p, 565 figures.
 * The four flora of France, including Corsica (General, Alpine, Mediterranean, Littoral), 1934-1940. With the author, Poinson-lès-Grancey , 1092 p, 8075 figures. New print in 1946 (Lechevalier), reissue in 1961 (Lechevalier), 2 nd edition in 1977 (2 volumes: I, text and II, atlas, Lechevalier), reissues identical to that of 1961 in 1990 (Lechevalier) and 2001 ( Dunod ).
 * Scientific trips and discoveries by French naturalist missionaries around the world for five centuries (15th to 20th centuries), 1932. Biological Encyclopedia X, Lechevalier, Paris, 258 p, 2 figures, 30 portraits.
 * Cacti and succulents, 1935. Practical Encyclopedia of the Naturalist: 28, Lechevalier, Paris, 110p, 64 color plates + 17 b & w plates. Reissue in 1954 (Lechevalier).
 * The book of medicinal and poisonous plants of France, 1947-1948. Biological Encyclopedia XXV-XXI-XXXII, Lechevalier, Paris, 3 vol, LXXVIII + 447 + 504 + 636 p, 818 figures.
 * Illustrated flora of gardens and parks. Open-air trees, shrubs and flowers, 1951-1952. Biological Encyclopedia XXXVIII-XXXIX-XL-XLIV, Lechevalier, Paris, 3 vol + atlas, 340 + 550 + 536 p + 182 plates.