Genus Plumeria

For Charles Plumier (1646–1704), French botanist and explorer. He entered the religious order of the Minims in 1662 where he studied, inter alia, art and later botany under Paolo Boccone (1633–1704) and Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656 –1708). Apart from local explorations, he journeyed to the West Indies in 1689, 1693 and 1695, recording what he observed, mainly plants, animals and fish. After his first journey he wrote Description des Plantes d’Amérique (1693), and was appointed royal botanist. He undertook two further expeditions on the command of Louis XIV, the result of which was a massive work, Nova Plantarum Americanarum Genera (1703–1704), and other publications. He died of pleurisy before he could start his fourth journey, leaving behind 31 manuscript volumes containing notes, descriptions and 6 000 illustrations.