Biography

French physician and pharmacist from Marseille. Surian travelled to the West Indies in 1689-90 with the Franciscan friar, Charles Plumier, commissioned by the French crown to make botanical explorations. On the trip, Surian mostly collected plants while Plumier, an excellent draughtsman, made drawings. The resulting specimens, preserved in ten books now at the national herbarium in Paris, relate directly to the Plumier drawings and are most useful in this respect, having been used by both Adanson and A.L. Jussieu. The genus Suriana L. was named after him by Plumier (verified by Linnaeus). Surian died only a year after returning from the West Indies, having accidentally poisoned himself and his family with herbs he intended to use as a mild purgative. Plumier took over his role as royal botanist.

Sources:
R.R. Rodríguez, W. Greuter and C. Plumier, 1999, "Charles Plumier's Drawings of American Plants and the Nomenclature of Early Caribbean Aristolochia", Taxon, 48(4): 679.

Biography

French physician and pharmacist from Marseille. Surian travelled to the West Indies in 1689-90 with the Franciscan friar, Charles Plumier, commissioned by the French crown to make botanical explorations. On the trip, Surian mostly collected plants while Plumier, an excellent draughtsman, made drawings. The resulting specimens, preserved in ten books now at the national herbarium in Paris, relate directly to the Plumier drawings and are most useful in this respect, having been used by both Adanson and A.L. Jussieu. The genus Suriana L. was named after him by Plumier (verified by Linnaeus). Surian died only a year after returning from the West Indies, having accidentally poisoned himself and his family with herbs he intended to use as a mild purgative. Plumier took over his role as royal botanist.

Sources:
R.R. Rodríguez, W. Greuter and C. Plumier, 1999, "Charles Plumier's Drawings of American Plants and the Nomenclature of Early Caribbean Aristolochia", Taxon, 48(4): 679.