Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708) was a French botanist, notable as the first to make a clear definition of the concept of genus for plants. He travelled extensively throughout Western Europe and the Levant making collections and undertaking other types of observations. Between 1700 and 1702 he travelled through the islands of Greece and visited Constantinople, the borders of the Black Sea, Armenia, and Georgia. His description of this journey was published posthumously ("Relation d'un voyage du Levant", translated into English as "A Voyage into the Levant"), which included numerous small maps and views, including of the Aegean islands and their people. He was killed by a carriage in Paris; the road on which he died now bears his name (Rue de Tournefort in the 5ème arrondissement).