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Flore laurentienne

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Flore laurentienne
Rare books and special collections, pavillon Thérèse-Casgrain, Université du Québec à Montréal[1]
AuthorBro. Marie-Victorin (1885-1944)
Original titleFlore laurentienne
IllustratorBro. Alexandre Blouin (1892-1987) [2]
LanguageFrench
GenreBotany
PublisherBros. of the Christian Schools
Publication date
1935
Publication placeQuebec, Canada
Media typeScientific work
Pages925
ISBN0-8405-0018-1

Flore laurentienne (The Laurentian Flora En) by Marie-Victorin Bro. (Conrad Kirouac),[3] is the scientific inventory of vascular plant resources growing spontaneously in the St. Lawrence River valley, in Quebec, Canada.[4]

First published by the Bros. of the Christian Schools in 1935, the manual lists and describes 1568 species of Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms, Angiosperms, plants illustrated by Bro. Alexandre Blouin.[2]

History

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Bro. Marie-Victorin in his office, (La Presse, 30 September 1944)

The Flore laurentienne is the fruit of thirty years of study, research, gathering, plant collecting, and classification of thousands of specimens. In 1935, in the midst of an economic crisis, it took the energy, charisma and sense of organization of Marie-Victorin, assisted by his collaborators, to bring the manuscript to the presses of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.

From its launch on April 3, 1935, at the Viger Hotel in Montreal, the Flore laurentienne was acclaimed as the bible of French-Canadian naturalists.[4][5][6]

Flore laurentienne divisions

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Flore laurentienne 1935, glossary, pp. 870, 871[1]

Preface — Historical and bibliographical summary of Laurentian botany — General outline — Synopsis of systematic groups — Artificial key to plants of Quebec — Pteridophytes — Spermatophytes — Gymnosperms — Angiosperms — Dicotyls — Monocotyls — Glossary — Abbreviations of author names — Alphabetical index (Marie-Victorin, p. 4, 1935)[3]

Editions

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Iris versicolor L., home page florelaurentienne.com

Recent publications are still available in bookstores, educational institutions, public libraries and on line, the work published for the first time in 1935,[1] in large format, has undergone several reissues:[4]

  • Second edition, completely revised and updated by Ernest Rouleau (1916-1991), published in September 1964, printed on Bible paper and in a reduced format;[7]
  • Third edition, updated and annotated by Luc Brouillet, Stuart G. Hay and Isabelle Goulet, published in October 1995, reprinted in 2002;
  • Digital edition, florelaurentienne.com, on line, updated, annotated, continuously active since 2001.


Collaborators

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To carry out his work, Bro. Marie-Victorin surrounded himself with several collaborators,[5] some of whom were his students. At the forefront of these is Bro. Alexandre [Blouin] (1892-1987),[2] the author of the 2800 illustrations of the Flora, and whose name appears on the title page of the work.[3] Jacques Rousseau, who would later become a botanist and ethnologist of international reputation[8] is the author of the " artificial key of Quebec plants ”, which, by avoiding overly technical elements and using the simplest and easiest to perceive characters, « allows even beginners and amateurs to orient themselves and arrive at the desired identification ».[9] For his part, Jules Brunel, Marie-Victorin's assistant at the Montreal Botanical Institute, was responsible for preparing the manuscripts, checking the documentation and correcting the proofs.[3] The last two mentioned also wrote the sections dealing with some of the more contentious genres.[3]

The author also addresses special thanks to other people, including Bro. Rolland-Germain, his collaborator for thirty years, Marcelle Gauvreau,[10][11] librarian of the Botanical Institute, and Émile Jacques, curator of the herbarium of this institution.

Reception

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... The publication of the first edition of Flore laurentienne was an event awaited by Quebec society at the time; it is announced on the front page of the daily Le Devoir. Biologist Georges Préfontaine wrote in Le Devoir: “A new monument, luminous and imperishable, stands today in the firmament of American botanical science.” The literary critic Pierre Daviault, in Le Droit, is equally complimentary:

. . . This book, Flore Laurentienne, is not the complete flora of Quebec within its current political limits. Even less is it the definitive critical flora of our vast province. The critical and complete flora of Quebec is a long-term work, undoubtedly begun, but whose completion will only be possible when the current generation of botanists has completed the exploration of the territory, drawn up the inventory, and worked out a large number of questions of detail.

— Marie-Victorin, Preface to the first edition, April 3, 1935

The same year the flora was published, the gold medal from the Provancher Society of Natural History of Canada was awarded to Marie-Victorin for its publication.[12][13]

  • Overview of plants studied
  • Claytonia caroliniana Michx. — Claytonie de Caroline. — (Spring beauty).
    Claytonia caroliniana Michx. — Claytonie de Caroline. — (Spring beauty).
  • Viola sororia Willd. (syn. Viola septentrionalis)
    Viola sororia Willd. (syn.Viola septentrionalis). — Violette septentrionale. — (Northern blue violet).
  • Saponaria officinalis L. — Saponaire officinale. — Herbe à savon. — (Soapwort).
    Saponaria officinalis L. — Saponaire officinale. — Herbe à savon. — (Soapwort).

Culture

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The Flore laurentienne is mentioned several times in Réjean Ducharme's novel, L’Hiver de force.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Center for Rare Books and Special Collections". Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) (in French). 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2024. ... has a magnificent collection of 45,000 rare books dated between the 14th and 20th centuries.
  2. ^ a b c "Frère Alexandre Blouin, f.é.c. (1892-1987)". Archives of the University of Montreal (in French). Retrieved 16 July 2024. Alexandre Blouin also taught religion, history, French, mathematics and physics.
  3. ^ a b c d e Marie-Victorin (3 April 1935). "Flore laurentienne". BAnQ digital (in French). Library and National Archives of Quebec. p. 917. Retrieved 18 July 2024. ... a work of convenience intended to offer French Canadians a means of acquiring a general knowledge, but as exact as possible, of the spontaneous flora of their country.
  4. ^ a b c Yanick Villedieu (7 April 2015). "La Flore laurentienne de Marie-Victorin a 80 ans" (in French). ici.radio-canada.ca. Retrieved 17 July 2024. ... has a completely unusual character because of its ethnobotanical and ecological comments.
  5. ^ a b "Marie-Victorin, harvest time (1935-1944)". Erudit (in French). Archives of the University of Montreal. Retrieved 17 July 2024. .. it is necessary to compile, translate and adapt foreign works; identify and create new monographs of plants when they do not exist and sometimes even decide on a name.
  6. ^ Yves Gingras (16 May 2005). "The struggles of Brother Marie-Victorin" (PDF) (in French). Department of History University of Quebec in Montreal. Retrieved 17 July 2024. ... opening the eyes of the geologist and the botanist to all things, of the art enthusiast and the curious about man and the Christian too.
  7. ^ John M. Crowley (1967). "Marie-Victorin, Bro. Flore Laurentienne, 2nd edition, review and updated by Ernest Rouleau, illustrated by Bro. Alexander" (PDF). Department of Geography at Laval University (in French). Quebec geography notebooks. p. 3. ...also includes mention of all species added to the flora of Quebec since 1935, more than six hundred species
  8. ^ "Marie-Victorin - L'héritage - Jacques Rousseau". Archives de l'Université de Montréal. Retrieved 2023-04-08.
  9. ^ Georges Préfontaine (13 March 1935). "« La Flore laurentienne » du Frère Marie-Victorin". Le Devoir. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  10. ^ Emmanuel Rioux (20 January 2022). "Marcelle Gauvreau, scientist and educator (1907-1968)" (PDF) (in French). Retrieved 16 July 2024. ... she works also in the glossary and index of great work of Marie-Victorin, la Flore laurentienne
  11. ^ Normand Miron (3 March 2021). "The Awakening (1935-1968) - The school of Marcelle Gauvreau at the Botanical Garden 1939-57" (PDF). p. 55. ... from the Botanical Garden Archives and the Archives of the city of Montreal, UQAM archives and newspapers such Le Devoir, La Presse, Le Front Ouvrier, monthly magazine L'Oiseau bleu, L'Action Catholic, Primary education, and notes from the Historical Society and cultural of Marigot
  12. ^ R. Courtois; É. Bossert; J. La Rochelle; M. Lepage (1935). The Provancher Society: 100 years of commitment to nature (pdf). Quebec: La Société Provancher d’Histoire naturelle du Canada. p. 42. Retrieved 7 April 2023..
  13. ^ "The Provancher Society 100 years of commitment to nature". Provancher society. 2024. Retrieved 16 July 2024. .. one of the oldest private conservation organizations in Canada. It was founded on May 2, 1919,
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