Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc

Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc (1759 - 1828)

Photo of Gyromitra caroliniana by John Denk

Back to Author Index

Biography
Sources
Selected publications
Species

Biography

Bosc grew up in France, and spent only a few years in the US, arriving in Charleston, South Carolina in 1796. As with many mycologists of his era, he was not only interested in fungi; he investigated and published on a wide variety of organisms. Mémoires sur quelques espèces de Champignons des parties méridionales de l'Amérique Septentrionale is his only work on American fungi.

In addition to his natural history works, Bosc also "edited" An appeal to impartial posterity: or, A collection of tracts written by her during her confinement in the prisons of the Abbey, and St. Pelagie, in Paris by Mme Roland (1754-1793), wife of the Minister of the Interior, who, as you can see from her dates, did not survive her imprisonment. The Appeal was directed at "her only daughter, deprived of the fortune of her parents by sequestration." I put the quotes around "edited", above, because I assume that Bosc did little besides smuggle the manuscript out and shepherd it through publication. N. S. Weber & A. H. Smith (1985) say that when Bosc came to this country, it was to put some distance between himself and "an unfortunate love affair." I certainly hope that it was not with Mme. Roland; having your lover guillotined in the Red Terror is certainly one of the more awful ways to end a relationship.

And one of the messiest...

Sources

Nancy Smith Weber & Alexander Hanchett Smith (1985) A Field Guide to Southern Mushrooms

Back to top

Selected Publications

Louis Augustin Guillaume BoscDictionnaire de la culture des arbres et de l'aménagement des forêts, par Bosc et Baudrillard

This is volume 7 of Alexandre Henri Tessier's Agriculture

Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc (1802) Histoire naturelle des coquilles : contenant leur description, les moeurs des animaux qui les habitent et leurs usages : avec figures dessinées d'après nature

Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc (1811) Mémoires sur quelques espèces de Champignons des parties méridionales de l'Amérique Septentrionale

"In ...[this work] he described fourteen species and one new genus of fungi, limiting himself to those he was sure were undescribed. Many of these species still bear the names he gave them."
-- N. S. Weber & A. H. Smith (1985)
I assume that Gyromitra caroliniana is one of them, especially considering where Bosc landed in this country.

Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc (1828) Histoire naturelle des crustacés, contenant leur description et leurs moeurs; avec figures dessinées d'après nature 2nd ed. 2 vol.

Back to top

Species

Calvatia cyathiformis (Bosc) A. P. Morgan
Dictyophora duplicata (Bosc) E. Fischer
Gyromitra caroliniana (Bosc: Fries) Fries

Back to top

Glossary
Mushrooms
People
Newsletter
Events