Biography

French bryologist and schoolteacher. Born at Soulancourt (Haute-Marne) in December 1850, Thériot was orphaned at the age of seven. After training as a teacher she was employed in Sarthe from 1883-1888 and then became director of the 'école primaire supérieure' at Le Havre, where she remained until her retirement in 1920. She retired to the small town of Fontaine la Mallet nearby, where she died in March 1947. She was buried next to her mother, who had died in 1938, and her only son, who died at the age of 30 in 1917.

Thériot devoted her spare time to bryology, in which she had first taken an interest while young, studying L. Corbière's flora of Normandy. The first specimen she described was Fissidens monguillonii Thériot (1887). Influenced by Jules Cardot and by F.F.G. Renauld, her scope widened beyond the French flora and in 1900 she authored works on the flora of North America and Tunisia. In 1904 she published work on the flora of China, then New Caledonia. Thériot acquired specimens from all over the world, sent to her by others, from which she described more than 1,000 new species and numerous new genera. The genus Theriotia was named for her by Cardot. Her herbarium, full of her own collections and those acquired by exchange, was deposited at the herbarium of the Natural History Museum in Paris in 1939.

Sources:
M. Bizot, 1952, "Irénée Thériot", The Bryologist, 55(2): 86-87.

Biography

French bryologist and schoolteacher. Born at Soulancourt (Haute-Marne) in December 1850, Thériot was orphaned at the age of seven. After training as a teacher she was employed in Sarthe from 1883-1888 and then became director of the 'école primaire supérieure' at Le Havre, where she remained until her retirement in 1920. She retired to the small town of Fontaine la Mallet nearby, where she died in March 1947. She was buried next to her mother, who had died in 1938, and her only son, who died at the age of 30 in 1917.

Thériot devoted her spare time to bryology, in which she had first taken an interest while young, studying L. Corbière's flora of Normandy. The first specimen she described was Fissidens monguillonii Thériot (1887). Influenced by Jules Cardot and by F.F.G. Renauld, her scope widened beyond the French flora and in 1900 she authored works on the flora of North America and Tunisia. In 1904 she published work on the flora of China, then New Caledonia. Thériot acquired specimens from all over the world, sent to her by others, from which she described more than 1,000 new species and numerous new genera. The genus Theriotia was named for her by Cardot. Her herbarium, full of her own collections and those acquired by exchange, was deposited at the herbarium of the Natural History Museum in Paris in 1939.

Sources:
M. Bizot, 1952, "Irénée Thériot", The Bryologist, 55(2): 86-87.

Biography

French bryologist and schoolteacher. Born at Soulancourt (Haute-Marne) in December 1850, Thériot was orphaned at the age of seven. After training as a teacher she was employed in Sarthe from 1883-1888 and then became director of the 'école primaire supérieure' at Le Havre, where she remained until her retirement in 1920. She retired to the small town of Fontaine la Mallet nearby, where she died in March 1947. She was buried next to her mother, who had died in 1938, and her only son, who died at the age of 30 in 1917.

Thériot devoted her spare time to bryology, in which she had first taken an interest while young, studying L. Corbière's flora of Normandy. The first specimen she described was Fissidens monguillonii Thériot (1887). Influenced by Jules Cardot and by F.F.G. Renauld, her scope widened beyond the French flora and in 1900 she authored works on the flora of North America and Tunisia. In 1904 she published work on the flora of China, then New Caledonia. Thériot acquired specimens from all over the world, sent to her by others, from which she described more than 1,000 new species and numerous new genera. The genus Theriotia was named for her by Cardot. Her herbarium, full of her own collections and those acquired by exchange, was deposited at the herbarium of the Natural History Museum in Paris in 1939.

Sources:
M. Bizot, 1952, "Irénée Thériot", The Bryologist, 55(2): 86-87.