Species Lessertia rigida

For Jules Paul Benjamin Delessert (1773–1847), French banker, industrialist, philanthropist and amateur botanist. After serving with the Paris National Guard from 1790–1793, where he became an artillery officer, he joined his father’s bank. A gifted and energetic entrepreneur, he started many commercial enterprises – a cotton factory in 1801 and a beet-sugar factory in 1802. He became regent of the Bank of France (1802) and introduced the idea of a savings bank in France (with Jean-Conrad Hottingerces) in 1818. He was an ardent botanist and conchologist with a notable herbarium and a botanical library of 30 000 volumes. He wrote several books and financed several exquisitely illustrated shell books. He was made a baron by Napoleon.