Species Ruellia bracteophylla

For Jean Ruel (Jean de la Ruelle) (1474–1537), a French physician, who obtained his doctorate in medicine at the University of Paris in 1502 and became dean of the medical faculty from 1508 to 1510. He was called to be personal physician to François I of France, but tactfully declined, saying that it would interfere with his studies. In about 1512, after the death of his wife, he was free to become a priest and was ordained canon of Notre-Dame de Paris. For the next 20 years, he dedicated his life to translating, commenting on and restoring the real text of the ancient Greek medical authors such as Dioscorides, Hippocrates, Galen, Euclid, Celsus and Pliny the Elder. He also wrote a treatise on botany De Natura Stirpium Libri Tres (1536), a massive work of some 666 pages.