Swiss-born horticulturalist associated with the Paris Museum. On several expeditions (to Indonesia, Madagascar, the West Indies, tropical Africa and India) Perrottet collected seeds and living plants for possible introduction to the French colonies. Georges Samuel Perrottet was born in Vully, in the Swiss canton of Vaud. In 1819-1821, after working for some time at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, he joined an expedition to Cayenne, Réunion, Java and the Philippines, commanded by P.H. Philibert. His official task was to collect plants for transplanting to French Guiana for cultivation; he also collected herbarium specimens. In 1824 he was appointed to direct a government outpost and trading company in Senegambia (now Senegal and Gambia), West Africa, where he made further explorations. Prior to returning to France in 1829, he also explored Gorée Island and Cape Verde. After publishing Flora Senegambiae Tentamen (1830-1833) with J.B.A. Guillemin and A. Richard, Perrottet was assigned by the Parisian Museum of Natural History to the botanic garden in Pondicherry, India, as an agricultural botanist. He came back to France in 1839, involving himself in the production of silk and publishing Art de l'indigotier in 1842. He then returned to India and worked as government botanist in Pondicherry from 1843 until his death. As well as his botanical work, Perrottet brought back specimens of fish from the East Indies and Senegal.