French Jesuit missionary Pierre d'Incarville made collections of plants in China, where he lived from 1740 until his death in 1757. He studied under the renowned botanist Bernard de Jussieu before travelling to China, where he worked mostly in Beijing (Peking). He sent seeds and specimens to Jussieu in Paris and to Philip Miller in Chelsea, London. The trees Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle and Platycladus orientalis (L.) Franco (basionym Thuja orientalis L.) were introduced to Europe from this material. As well as 149 collections from the Beijing region he forwarded 144 specimens from Macao, before travelling to the north of China.

After Bernard de Jussieu's death, d'Incarville's collections were passed on to Antoine Laurent de Jussieu and were eventually presented to the Paris Museum of Natural History.

D'Incarville produced a manuscript catalogue of Chinese plants and their uses, which was published in 1812-1813 in the Mémoires des Naturalistes de Moscou. Two other papers by him were also posthumously published: "Mémoire sur le Vernis de la Chine" (1760, Mémoires Mathématiques et Physiques de l'Académie Scientifique de Paris) and "Mémoire sur les Vers á Soie Sauvages" (1777, Mémoires conc. les Chinois). The genus Incarvillea Juss. was named in his honour.

Sources:
E.H.M. Cox, 1944, "The Hon'ble East India Company and China", Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, 156: 6
E. Bretschneider, 1898, History of European Botanical Discoveries In China: 46-56
M. Franchet, 1882, "Les Plantes de Pére d'Incarville dans l'Herbier du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris", Bulletin de la Société Botanique de France, 29: 2-13.