Biography

French-born Catholic priest in Louisiana. Augustus Langlois collected plants in his various parishes in Louisiana and was particularly interested in lichens and fungi. Originally from the Department of Rhônein France, he was educated in the Loire Region. Moving to the United States in 1855 he continued his studies at the College of Mount St. Mary of the West, Cincinnati, and was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1857. Langlois was first posted at Point à la Hache, in Plaquemines Parish of the south-eastern Mississippi delta and in this region he gathered a great deal of his plant collection. After 35 years in this parish he was moved to St. Martinville in 1887 and continued to botanise in the surrounding parishes.

Another region in which Langlois collected plants was St. Tammy Parish, where he yearly attended a church retreat. In correspondence with a number of important lichenologists and mycologists, he sent many of his Louisiana fungi to J.B. Ellis who was subsequently able to describe a number of species. Langlois himself described some new species, including Volutella ellisii which he named after Ellis. His herbarium was deposited in the Catholic University of America in Washington DC.

Sources:
A.B. Langlois, early collector of Louisiana Fungi, Louisiana State University:
http://lsb380.plbio.lsu.edu/Gallery/gallery.html, accessed 26th July 2011.