Marie-Victorin

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Marie-Victorin in his laboratory at the Université de Montréal

Brother Marie-Victorin (born Joseph Louis Conrad Kirouac, April 4, 1885 in Kingsey Falls, Quebec - July 15, 1944) was a Christian Brother and botanist, best known as the father of the Jardin botanique de Montréal. Although Marie-Victorin is on record as having suggested that Montréal build its own botanical gardens as early as 1919, the Jardin was only authorized by Montreal mayor Camillien Houde in 1929, and work only began on construction in 1931.

Subsequent administrations, both municipal and provincial, opposed the Jardin as a boondoggle; however, Marie-Victorin continued to champion the Jardin's cause, promoting it at every opportunity, leading specimen-collection expeditions, and even (during the Second World War) protecting it from being converted into a military flight school.

Marie-Victorin is also known for his writing: his La flore Laurentienne is a botanical record of all Laurentian indigenous species, and was the first such record to be compiled. As well, he is known for being a relative of Jack Kerouac.

Marie-Victorin died in a car accident in July 1944; a building at the Université de Montréal, where he had taught botany, was subsequently named for him.

The standard author abbreviation Vict is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.^[1]