Species Merciera tenuifolia

For Marie Philippe Mercier (1781–1831), French botanist, plant collector and traveller. Born on the island of Martinique, he worked briefly for the military and police before making lengthy trips to the United States, Mexico, West Indies, Brazil and Chile as a trader collecting plants that he sent to Augustin Pyramus de Candolle and Stephano Moricand in Geneva. In 1822 Mercier moved to Geneva, where he studied botany under the direction of De Candolle. He died before his Choix des Plantes Exotiques Rares ou Nouvelles was completed, although an extract was published by Nicolas Seringe in his bulletin. His large herbarium of some 300 000 items containing many neotropical plants was purchased by the British naturalist Philip Barker Webb.