Léveillé, A.A. Hector

• A.A. Hector Leveille
• Augustin Abel Hector Leveille

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.

Botanist and clergyman