François André Michaux (1770–1855) was a French botanist, son of André Michaux. He accompanied his father to the United States, and his Histoire des arbres forestiers de l'Amérique septentrionale (three volumes, 1810–13) contains the results of his explorations and gives an account of the distribution and the scientific classification of the principal American timber trees north of Mexico and east of the Rocky Mountains. Under the title The North American Sylva it was translated by Hillhouse. The work was reissued in 1852 by Robert Smith of Philadelphia, again in three quarto volumes, and again with 156 hand colored lithographs of American trees and shrubs. A supplement of three additional volumes, trees, "...not Described in the Work of F. Andrew Michaux" was issued by Smith in 1853, in the same quarto format and with 121 additional hand colored plates. The later work, by Thomas Nuttall, describes trees of the Rockies and Pacific Coast.
Francois Andre Michaux published his monumental work, The North American Sylva,[1][2] first in French and then in English translation, between 1811 and 1819. With illustrations by Pierre Joseph Redoute' and Pancrace Bessa, two masters of botanical art, his opus rapidly became a landmark in American literature and the--foundation--of American forestry. His work was augmented by the British botanist, Thomas Nuttal, whose work added 121 hand-colored plates to the 156 originally with Michaux's Sylva. His additions cover eastern species overlooked by Michaux, and new species he had gathered on his excursions in the Midwest and West[3]
See Wikipedia biography for Thomas Nuttal.
This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.