French born Spanish botanist and member of the Malaspina Expedition (1789-1794). Luis Neé was born into a working class family in the village of Perray in Rambouillet, just outside Paris. He was unable to complete more than his basic studies but from a young age harboured an interest in botany and collecting plants. He moved to Spain and later became a Spanish citizen. In 1772 Neé undertook his first botanical role for the pharmacy of the Monastery of Nuestra Señora de la Espina, collecting plants in the mountains of Santander and Asturias, and later branching out into most of Spain. In 1777 he moved to Madrid to work for Casimiro Gómez Ortiga, director of the botanic gardens there, collecting for them and studying in their library to further the knowledge of the establishment. In between excursions in Navarre and Basque country Neé was involved in the translocation of plants from the garden in Migas Calientes to their new site on the Paseo Prado.

For the three years Neé spent working for the gardens he lived in Gómez Ortiga's own house before he became employed by the head pharmacist of the field army of Gibraltar (1780) and practiced as a pharmacist there. In this role he created a garden of medicinal herbs in the hospital of Algeciras and published his Botanical Observations made in Andalucía in 1780, 1781 and 1782. In 1784 Neé began to work in Navarra under the 'protomedico' M. de Echandi and was soon named correspondent to the botanic gardens of Madrid in Pamplona, in this role he was commissioned with the task of creating a botanic gardens there, which were founded that same year.

Back in Madrid in 1787 Neé worked in the garden of the priory of the Real Pharmacy and it was here that he met Antonio Pineda who recruited him for the Mexican detachment of the Malaspina expedition. They set off for the New World in 1789, Neé as Pineda's assistant, and the two travelled together collecting plants and other specimens of interest. They passed Montevideo, Patagonia, Chile and Peru before stationing themselves for some time in Acapulco and botanising in New Spain. From here they embarked for the Philippines in 1792 and later visited Australia, stopping in Botany Bay, before returning to Chile and travelling overland to Montevideo where they were reunited with the rest of the team. As well as collecting himself, Neé was also sent specimens from other members of the trip who were collecting in California, and from these materials he named two oak species: Quercus agrifolia and Q. lobata. Neé sent specimens to his old institutions in Spain as well as other herbaria in Europe, keeping a detailed diary of his descriptions and classifications as well as writing some essays on his findings.

When the expedition arrived back in Spain in 1794 Neé had collected over 10,000 specimens and he returned to the botanic gardens of Madrid where his friend Antonio José Cavanilles had become director. Neé, more inclined towards exploring than writing, did not publish extensively and his "Historia general de las plantas" remained unpublished; but he did aid Cavanilles with his important botanical works and, after receiving a pension in 1801, published regularly in the Anales de Ciencias Naturales. Neé had two sons from two different marriages and in 1804 his academic work stopped, three years before his death. The botanists José Pavón and Hipólito Ruiz of the Botanical expedition to Peru (1777-1788) named the genus Neea in his honour.

Sources:
Colmiero, M., 1858, La Botánica y Los Botánicos de la Península Hispano-Lusitana. Imprenta y Estereotipia de M. Rivadeneyra. Madrid.
David, A., 2001, The Malaspina Expedition 1789-1794: Journal of the Voyage by Alejandro Malaspina. Volume III: Manila to Cadiz. The Hakluyt Society, London.
Muñoz Garmendia, F., 1992, La Expedición Malaspina 1789-1794. Tomo III: Diarios y Trabajos Botanicos de Luis Neé. Ministerio de Defensa. Museo Naval, Lunwerg Editos.