Gardener and plant collector active in North Africa and the Middle East. Nicolas Bové was born in Mühlenbach, Luxembourg, and like his father became a gardener. He worked from 1823 in the garden of Chateau de Preisch, before returning to his home town in 1826-1827 to study ancient languages. Pursuing an interest in science he then moved to Paris, where he took up work at the Jardin des Plantes of the Paris Museum of Natural History, meanwhile studying natural history under the tutors in the Museum.
Recommended by his teacher, Leclerc-Thouin, in 1829 Bové was appointed director of the Cairo gardens of Ibrahim Pasha. While based there he took the opportunity to collect plants in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Yemen in his first year, then in Sinai, Palestine and Syria in 1831-1832. The latter trip was primarily on behalf of the Egyptian government, who charged Bové with reporting on these neighbouring regions and the plants that could be introduced to Egypt from there.
Bové returned to Europe in 1833 and after spending time in Paris and with his family began speaking with the government of the Netherlands about introducing certain economic plants from Arabia to its colonies, for example the rubber-yielding tree Mimosa arabica Lam. The government did not go ahead with Bové's suggestions and instead he found himself working for the French government in Algeria, directing a large garden of acclimatisation at Birkadem. In his spare time he collected plants and began work on a flora of the country, which was left incomplete at the time of his death in 1841.
Some of the specimens gathered by Bové were accessioned by the herbarium of the Paris Museum of Natural History in 1833 and 1838, while his original herbarium is at the National Botanic Garden of Belgium. Joseph Decaisne published Bové's phanerogams from Sinai as Florula Sinaica in 1834.
Sources:
J.H. Barnhart, 1965, Biographical Notes Upon Botanists, 1: 232
J.P.J. Koltz, 1869, "Notice sur Nicolas Bové, naturaliste-voyageur, &c", Bulletin de la Société Royale de Botanique de Belgique 8: 202-206
A. Lasègue, 1845, Musée botanique de M. Benjamin Delessert: 119-121.
