ORIANI, Barnaba (1752-1832)

Louis Née (ca.1734 - 1807), French botanist, is a figure about whom little is known. He was working in the Jardín de La Prioria de la Real Bótica when Antonio Pineda proposed that he be asked to participate in the Malaspina Expedition. He accepted, and embarked on the corvette Atrevida, collecting plants in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Ecuador. Accompanied by Pineda he travelled in the interior of Mexico; in the Philippines he carried out studies of the botany of the islands of Luzón and Mindanao. He collected previously unknown species in Dusky Bay and Botany Bay; then, having disembarked at Talcahuano, he crossed the Andean Cordillera and the pampa, rejoining the rest of the Expedition at Buenos Aires. Back in Spain, he was occupied for years in various attempts (not always crowned with success) to publish the results of his researches. A part of the herbarium collected by him is preserved in the Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid.

For more information, see:

F. MUÑOZ GARMENDIA (ed.) Diarios y trabajos botánicos de Luis Neé, Vol. III di La Expedición Malaspina 1789-1794, Madrid, Ministerio de Defensa - Museo Naval - Lunwerg, s.d. 1993, 416 pp.

Image courtesy of the Centro di Studi Malaspiniani, Mulazzo, Italy.  Biographical and bibliographical note by Dario Manfredi (Italian version), translated by John Black.