Skip to content

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Filippo Parlatore

Free World Class Education
FREE Catholic Classes

Italian botanist, b. at Palermo, 8 Aug., 1816; d. at Florence, 9 Sept., 1877, a devout and faithful Catholic. He studied medicine at Palermo, but practiced only for a short time, his chief activity being during the cholera epidemic of 1837. Although at that time he had been an assistant professor of anatomy, a subject on which he had already written (Treatise on the human retina), he soon gave up all other interests to devote his entire attention to botany. He first made a study of the flora of Sicily, publishing in 1838 "Flora panormitana" (Palermo); he also dealt with the Sicilian flora in later works. In 1840 he left home to begin his extended botanical expeditions. He travelled all through Italy, then into Switzerland (where he remained for a time at Geneva with Decandolle), to France (where he was at Paris with Webb, the Englishman) and to England, his longest stay being at Kew. His part in the Third Congress of Italian naturalists held at Florence in 1841 was of significance for him and for the development of botanical studies in Italy. At this congress, in his celebrated memoir "Sulla botanica in Italia", he proposed, among other things, that a general herbarium be established at Florence. This proposal was adopted. Grand Duke Leopold sought his assistance for this herbarium, gave him the post of professor of botany at the museum of natural sciences (a chair which had been vacant for almost thirty years), and made him director of the botanical garden connected with the museum. For more than three decades Parlatore was most active in fulfilling the duties of these positions, one of his principal services being the contribution of "Collections botaniques du musée royale de physique et d'histoire naturelle" (Florence, 1874) to the great collection entitled "Erbario centrale italiano". His own private herbarium is now a part of the central herbarium, containing about 1900-2500 fascicules. In 1849 he made an investigation of the flora of the Mont-Blanc chain of the Alps; in 1851 he explored those of Northern Europe, Lapland, and Finland ; the reports of theses two expeditions appeared respectively in 1850 and 1854.

He published numerous treatises on botanical subjects,---discussing questions of system, organography, physiology, plant geography, and palæontology ---in various periodicals, chiefly in the "Giornale botanico Italiano" (1844-), which he founded. He also gave considerable attention to the history of botany in Italy. His lifework in botany, however, is "Flora Italiana", of which five volumes appeared between 1848 and 1874; the text five were issued by T. Caruel (to 1894) with the assistance of Parlatore's manuscript This work stands in high repute among all botanists. Mention should also be made of "Lezioni di botanica comparata" (Florence, 1843) and "Monographia delle fumarie" (Florence, 1844). To the sixteenth volume of Decandolle's "Prodromus", Parlatore contributed the accounts of the coniferi and gnetaceæ to Webb's "Histoire naturelle des îles Canaries" (Paris, 1836-50), the accounts of the umbelligeri and graminæ. In 1842 Boissier, the botanist, named a genus of cruciferi "Parlatoria".

Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.

Prayer of the Day logo
Saint of the Day logo

Catholic Online Logo

Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.

Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.