Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1863 - 1918 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
Small collection; 10 folders of plant lists & in "L" box, Folder of correspondence & Files
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Augustin Léveillé attended medical school prior to entering into the priesthood. In 1887 he travelled to India as a missionary and was then appointed a professor of natural history at the College of Pondicherry. In 1891 he returned to France for health reasons, settling in his hometown of Le Mans. Following a meeting with botanist Adrien René Franchet in 1900, he agreed to perform studies on the many thousands of plant specimens sent by collectors from the Far East. From these shipments Léveillé is credited with describing around 2000 new species with many of the plants being co-described along with Father Eugène Vaniot. In 1892 he founded the magazine Le Monde des Plantes, serving as its director until his death. During the same year he founded the Académie internationale de géographie botanique (International Academy of Botanical Geography). He published several monographs on plants collected from Japan and China as well as a dictionary of French flora in 1916. Numerous species are named in his honour, as well as the genus Leveillea (family Asteraceae). His herbarium was acquired by Scottish botanist George Forrest.
Source: Wikipedia
D.W.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
•10 folders of plant lists
•List of Léveillé / Leveille duplicates sent to Tokyo and Seoul
•Léveillé Plantae Novae Sandwicencis
•List of correct names for Léveilléan species described in the wrong family
•Léveillé lists
•Folder containing Douglas McKean’s correspondence and research relating to the re-organisation and identification of RBGE’s Léveillé herbarium.
•File containing a Dicots Index – working copy for counting Léveillé Taxa, Douglas McKean’s notebook on Léveillé Chinese and Indian localities, and Douglas McKean’s notes and correspondence relating to Léveillé’s Carex types.
•Correspondence with I.B. Balfour filed with “Balfour, I.Bayley” papers under “Léveillé, H.”
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Collection is open to researchers by appointment, see (right click, open link in new tab:) https://www.rbge.org.uk/science-and-conservation/library-and-archives/visiting-the-library/
Conditions governing reproduction
Permission required from RBGE