French naturalist and horticulturalist from Autun in Saône-et-Loire. He initially trained in medicine but abandoned that career in favour of natural history. He joined the herbarium staff of the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris and was appointed professor of zoology at the Collège Chaptal, Paris (1846-1848), but resigned because of a nervous disorder. He later returned to employment at the Paris museum and was assistant (aide-naturaliste) to Joseph Decaisne (1854-1869). He retired from the museum and established a private garden at Collioures (1869) where he experimented with hybridisation and acclimatisation, earning income by selling specimens and seeds. From his experimental work, he published a theory of transmutation based on hybridisation, and corresponded (1864-1882) with Charles Darwin on the subject. He later assumed the position of director of the state-run Villa Thuret botanical gardens at Antibes (1878-1899), Alpes-Maritimes, and during this period described many taxa, including cultivated species originating from Australia and South America. Naudin collected in Africa (Algeria, 1847 and 1852) but other material attributed to him from Africa was cultivated from living material collected by others. Specimens from Madagascar and the Comoro Islands originated mainly from the collections of P. Camboué. Material from Nigeria was based on the collections of G. Mann and South African material from F.M.J. Welwitsch and probably others. The genera Naudinia Planch & Linden (nom. cons.), in the Rutaceae, and Naudiniella Krasser commemorate Charles Naudin.