Organisation(s)
P (main), AAU, BR, EGR, H, K, LD, M, MPU, PC, Q, RAB, S, TAN, U, UC, US, WAG
Biography
French botanist from Vendresse (Ardennes). After obtaining his baccalauréat, Raymond Benoist continued his studies at the Faculty of Sciences in Paris and received a doctorate for his work on Acanthaceae (1912). He also frequented the laboratories of Henri LeComte and Philippe van Thieghem at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, which awarded him a scholarship in 1909-1910. After graduating he was appointed as an assistant at the École Pratique des Hautes Études. During the First World War he served as an ambulance driver at the Michelet hospital in Vauves. He subsequently joined the Muséum as a botany assistant and eventually rose to deputy director of the phanerogam laboratory. In 1942 a decree from the Vichy government concerning the 'rejuvenation' of the cadres forced his retirement. After the Liberation he was named head of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and was director of botanical services (1949-1952) at l'Institut de Recherche Scientifique de Madagascar (ORSTOM) at Tananarive.
After his return to France, he continued, with the help of his wife, to arrange and study his collections. In addition to his long stay in Madagascar, he had worked and travelled in other parts of the world earlier in his career. He had been sent by the government to study the forests of French Guiana (1913-1914); had made two expeditions to Morocco, the first (1918) in the Middle Atlas and the High Moulouya for the Muséum, the second (1928) as expedition leader for l'Institut Scientifique Cherifien de Rabat; and was seconded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to teach botany at the medical school in Quito (1930-1932). He was the author of 45 publications on the adaptive anatomical characteristics of Acanthaceae and of a key for the woody plants of French Guiana (Les Bois de la Guyane Française et Brésil, 1921). He also studied the botanical geography of Ecuador, the morphology and biology of Andean plants, and had an interest in honey bees.
Sources:
P. Jaussaud and E.R. Brygoo, 2004, Du Jardin au Muséum en 516 Biographies.
References
Brummitt, R.K. & Powell, C.E., Authors Pl. Names (1992): 59; Dorr, L.J. Pl. Collectors Madagasc. Comoro Is. (1997): 37, 328; Lanjouw, J. & Stafleu, F.A., Index Herb. Coll. A-D (1954): 68; Renner, S. Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 82 (1993): 10;
