Swiss botanist at the herbarium (Conservatoire Botanique) of Geneva. John Isaac Briquet was born in Geneva and was also educated in this city, as well as in Heidelberg, Germany, and Greenock, Scotland. Attending the University of Geneva, an aging Alphonse de Candolle took him under his wing and allowed to use his personal herbarium and library freely. After receiving his baccalaureate in the physical and natural sciences in 1888, he went on to complete his education in Berlin the following year, where he studied plant anatomy, systematics and geography.
In 1890 Briquet returned to Geneva to take up a position as assistant curator of the Conservatoire Botanique under Jean Müller, his former tutor. On the death of this figure in 1896, Briquet was named curator of the herbarium and very quickly began to raise money to upgrade the dilapidated building. In 1904 the new edifice was opened and housed the important and relatively recently acquired Delessert herbarium. Almost 25 years later he would appeal for national funding for the upkeep of the growing collection (which then included the famous de Candolle specimens), an effort in which he was also successful.
Briquet's academic interests were firmly focussed upon the alpine plants and he had already published two papers on this subject when he came to work at the Conservatoire at the age of 20. For his doctorate, which he received in 1891, Briquet produced a monograph of the Galeopsis L. genus, and would continue to study members of the Lamiaceae family throughout his career. He even produced the monograph for this family in Adolf Engler's Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien (1887-1915). Producing some 400 botanical publications throughout his life, Briquet also founded (1897) and edited the Annuaire du Conservatoire et du Jardin Botanique de Genève until his death.
Between 1895 and 1917 he undertook numerous botanical excursions with Emile Burnat, travelling to Corsica, Dalmatia, the French and Italian Maritime Alps, Montenegro and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Collecting along the way, they published floras from their travels, including Flore des Alpes Maritimes (1906) and Prodrome de la Flore Corse (1910). Another great contribution of his was in the formation of a code of botanical nomenclature. He did not live to see the completed amended code of rules, although he was active in editing and reporting for the congresses in which its content was discussed.
Briquet had a wife and a daughter and was awarded several honours for his contributions, including a doctorate from the University of Cambridge and elected as a foreign member of the Linnean Society of London. He served as president of the Swiss Botanical Society from 1912-1921 and also held the rank of Captain of Infantry in the Swiss Army. Unfortunately, he endured substantial injuries after an accident in Morocco in 1928, and died unexpectedly in Geneva three years later.
Sources:
J. Briquet, 1940, "Biographies des Botanistes a Genève", Bulletin de la Société Botanique Suisse, 50a: 71-76
A.B. Rendle, 1931, "Obituaries: John Isaac Briquet (1870-1931)", Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London 144: 167-169.
