ANDRE

See also:

• ANDRE MICHAUA (1746-1802)

MICHAUA (1746-1802)  , French botanist and traveller, was born at Versailles on the 7th of March 1746 . In 1779 he spent some time botanizing in England, and in 178o he explored Auvergne, the Pyrenees and the north of Spain . In 1782 he was sent by the French government on a botanical mission to Persia . His journey began unfavourably, as he was robbed by Arabs of all his equipment except his books; but he gained influential support in Persia, having cured the shah of a dangerous illness . After two years he returned to France with a fine herbarium, and also introduced numerous Eastern plants into the botanic gardens of France . In 1785 he was sent by the French government to North America, and travelled with his son Francois Andre (1770–1855) through Canada, Nova Scotia and the United States . On his return to France in 1797 he was shipwrecked and lost most of his collections . In x800 he went to Madagascar to investigate the flora of that island, and died there on the 16th of November 1802 . His work as a botanist was chiefly done in the field, and he added largely to what was previously known of the botany of the East and of America . He wrote two valuable works on North American plants—the Histoire des chenes de l'Amerique septentrionale (18o1), with 36 plates, and the Flora Boreali-Americana (2 vols., 1803), with 51 plates . His son Francois published a Histoire des arbres forestiers de l'Amerique septentrionale (3 vols., 1810-1813), with 156 plates, of which an English translation appeared in 1817-1819 as The North American Sylva .