Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle

Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle (French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl lwi leʁitje də bʁytɛl]; 15 June 1746 – 18 August 1800) was an 18th-century French botanist and civil servant. Born into an affluent upper-class Parisian family, connections with the French Royal Court secured him the position of Superintendent of Parisian Waters and Forests at the age of twenty-six. In this capacity, L'Héritier conducted various studies of native trees and shrubs, also gaining interest in exotic flora. The standard author abbreviation L'Hér. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.

The abbreviation L'Herit. is also used.

Early life

Apart from what is stated above, little is known of his early life before his first employment. He appears to have been self-taught in botany, after taking up the superintendency.

In 1775, L'Héritier was appointed a magistrate in the Cour des Aides in Paris. This was a court which dealt with tax offences, but under its president Malesherbes it became perhaps the only French government institution to protect ordinary citizens against a corrupt state. Malesherbes himself was a keen botanist, but in the same year (1775) he was forced out of office because he published a scheme to reform the tax system.

Also in 1775, L'Héritier married Thérèse-Valère Doré. They had five children in the 19 years until Thérèse-Valère died.

With his private wealth and public income, L'Héritier was enabled to pursue his botanical interests as a wealthy amateur. He was a strict follower of the Linnaean system of plant classification. The most influential French botanists of the time—Jussieu, Adanson and others—advocated a more natural system of classification, meaning beauty. L'Héritier soon clashed with them, although he was friends with other scholars such as Georges Cuvier, Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet, and André Thouin. Through these contacts, he corresponded with other botanists such as Joseph Banks and James Edward Smith, in the Linnaean stronghold of England.