Genus Peyrousea

For Jean François de Galaup, Comte de la Pèrouse (1741–1788), French navigator, explorer and naturalist. He fought against the British off North America in the Seven Years’ War and was promoted to the rank of commodore. In 1785 he led an expedition to the Pacific which included 10 scientists, an astronomer, a botanist, a physicist and three naturalists. He went to Easter Island, Hawaii, Alaska, California, the Philippines, Korea, the Kurile Islands, Russia, Japan, the South Seas, and Australia, but then he and all his men disappeared and were never seen again. Thirtyseven years later it was determined that both his ships had been wrecked on reefs and sunk.