Labillardière, Jacques-Julien Houtou de (1755 - 1834)

Summary

Jacques-Julien Labillardière was a French naturalist noted for publishing the first general flora of Australia. He studied medicine in Montpellier and Rheims, completing his studies in 1779. He spent two years from 1784 in England where he looked at exotic plants cultivated there. During this period he made the acquaintance of Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, and James Edward Smith, later the founding President of the Linnean Society. In 1791 Labillardière was appointed naturalist in Recherche, a French naval vessel which, under the command of Joseph-Antoine Bruny d'Entrecasteaux and accompanied by Espérance, embarked on an expedition to find traces of Jean-François de La Pérouse. The expedition visited the southern coast of New Holland, Van Diemen's Land, and a number of Pacific islands, but found no trace of La Pérouse. On the journey home, political dissention within the crews resulted in the republicans (including Labillardière) being imprisoned and the scientific collections confiscated. On finally returning to Europe in 1795, he discovered his specimens (which included over 4,000 plants, most unknown, as well as fish, birds and insects) were in England as the prizes of war. With the intervention of Banks these were ultimately returned to Labillardière. The results of his examination of these plant specimens were published in Novae hollandiae plantarum specimen (1804-7). Most of these specimens are now in the Museo di Storia Naturali di Firenze. The endemic Australian plant genus Billardiera (Pittosporaceae) was named in his honour.

Details

Chronology

1782 - 1784

Life event - Visited England

1787 - 1788

Life event - Travelling in the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East

1791 - 1794

Botanist in Recherche on expedition commanded by Bruni D'Entrecasteaux

1792

Award - Elected Corresponding Member, L'Academie royale des Sciences, Paris

1799

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus cornuta Labill.

1799

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus globulus Labill.

1806

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus cordata Labill.

1806

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus incrassata Labill.

1806

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus ovata Labill.

1806

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus viminalis Labill.

1806

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus amygdalina Labill.

1816

Award - Elected Foreign Member, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Joseph Antoine Bruni d' Entrecasteaux - Records, 1789 - 1794, B1213-60; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Books

• Duyker, Edward, Citizen Labillardière: a Naturalist's Life in Revolution and Exploration (1755-1834) (Carlton, Victoria: Miegunyah Press, 2003), 383 pp. Details
• Giblin, R. W., The Early History of Tasmania (London: 1928). Details
• Labillardière, Jacobo-Juliano, Novae hollandiae plantarum specimen, 2 vols (Parisiis: ex typographia Dominae Huzard, 1804-[7]). Details
• Labillardiere, Jacques Julien Houtou de, Relation de la voyage à le recherche de la Pérouse, fait par ordre de l'Assemblée Constituante pendant les années 1791, 1792 et pendant la 1e la 2e années de la République Française Paris 2 vols, 2 vols (Paris: H. J. Hansen, 1799-1800). Details
• Labillardiere, Jacques Julien Houtou de, Voyage in search of la Pérouse performed by order of the Constituent Assembly during the years 1791, 1792, 1793 and 1794, 2 vols (London: John Stockdale, 1800). Details
• Labillardière, Jacques-Julien Houtou de, Novae hollandiae plantarum specimen (Lehre, Germany: Cramer, 1966), 112, 130 pp. Details
• MacInnis, Peter, Curious Minds: the Discoveries of Australian Naturalists (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2012), 213 pp. Pages 20-23. Details

Book Sections

• 'La Billardière, Jacques-Julien Houtou de (1755-1834), naturalist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 2: 1788 - 1850 I-Z, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1967), p. 69. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/la-billardiere-jacques-julien-houtou-de-2316. Details
• Carr, S. G. M.; and Carr, D. J., 'A charmed life: the collections of Labillardiere' in People and plants in Australia, Carr, D. J. and Carr, S. G. M., eds (Sydney: Academic Press, 1981), pp. 79-115. Details

Journal Articles

• Evenhuis, Neal L., 'Localities of Fabrician Types Collected by Labillardiere on the Voyage of the Recherche and Esperance, with Special Reference to the Diptera', Archives of Natural History, 15 (2) (1988), 185-196. Details
• Kantvilas, G., 'A Brief History of Lichenology in Tasmania, Australia', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 117 (1983), 41-52. Details
• Maiden, J. H., 'Records of the Earlier French Botanists as Regards Australian Plants.', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, xliv (1910), 123-155. Details
• Nelson, E. Charles, 'The locations of collection and collectors of specimens described by Labillardière in 'novae hollandiae plantarum specimen' - additional notes.', Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 108 (1974), 159-70. Details
• Nelson, E. Charles, 'The collectors and type locations of some of Labillardière's 'terra van-Leuwin' (Western Australia) specimens', Taxon, 24 (1975), 319-36. Details
• Parra, Luis A., Rogosky, Phillip and May, Tom W., 'Voyage in search of Aseroe (Fungi: Phallaceae): historical and nomenclatural secrets revealed and controversies solved for the iconic Australasian species Aseroe rubra', Muelleria, 43 (2025), 17-71, https://rbgv-prod-cdn-bpfbb4gthrfzb4ab.a03.azurefd.net/media/hqidymmd/muelleria-43-parra-aseroe-17-71.pdf. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q528925. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/22375932. Details
• 'La Billardière, Jacques-Julien Houtou de (17551023-18340108)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-898251. Details

Reviews

• Duyker, Edward, Citizen Labillardière: a Naturalist's Life in Revolution and Exploration (1755-1834) (2003)
  Groves, Richard, Historical Records of Australian Science, 14 (4), (2003), 541-543. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR03010. Details

See also

• Brosse, Jacques; translated by Hochman, Stanley, Great voyages of exploration: the golden age of discovery in the Pacific (Lane Cove, N.S.W.: Doubleday Australia, 1983), 228 pp. Details
• Carr, S. G. M. and Carr, D. J., 'The French contribution to the discovery of Australia and its flora', Endeavour, 35 (1976), 21-6. Details
• Douglas, Bronwen; Veys, Fanny Wonu; and Lythberg, Billie eds, Collecting in the South Sea: the voyage of Bruni d'Entrecasteaux 1791-1794 (Leiden, Netherlands: Sidestone Press, 2018), 340 pp. Details
• Hogg, G. H., 'D'Entrecasteaux: an account of his life, his expeditions and his officers', Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1937 (1937), 53-74. Details
• Ladiges, P. Y.; and Ashton, D. H., 'A comparison of some populations of Eucalyptus viminalis Labill. growing on calcareous and acid soils in Victoria, Australia.', Australian Journal of Ecology, 2 (2) (1977), 161-178. Details
• Maiden, J. H., 'Records of Tasmanian Botanists', Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1909 (1909), 9-29. Details
• Marchant, Leslie, France Australe: a study of French exploration and attempts to found a penal colony and strategic base in south western Australia 1503-1826 (Perth: Artlook Press, 1982), 384 pp. Details
• Mulvaney, John and Tyndale-Biscoe, Hugh eds, Rediscovering Recherche Bay (Canberra: Academy of Social Sciences in Australia for the National Academies Forum, 2007), 156 pp. Details