Jacques de la Comble Natural History Museum

The botanical collection of the Museum of Autun includes individual herbaria, most of them incorporated into the collections of the Natural History Society of Autun since its foundation in 1886. The herbarium of scholar botanist Emile Chateau recently came to complement this collection. Current works carried out on the herbarium show the interest found in the study of these objects. Indeed, botanists were fascinated by this collection in the early days of its constitution; that interest is renewed today with the types and figured specimen that it contains.

This set, installed in compactus, includes the François-Xavier Gillot Herbarium, one of the most erudite botanists of the 19th century. Authors of 361 botanical papers, in his 40 years of career, this scholar focuses on fungi and phanerogams, mainly in the systematic field. His herbarium of phanerogams, composed of 327 boxes, joins the collections of the SHNA in 1899.

Gillot is the original author of 3 still valid species of the Flore de France: Viola cryana Gillot, 1878, Cirsium richteranium Gillot, 1880, et Oxytropis foucaudii Gillot, 1895.

His work alone could be enough to warrant the notoriety of our collection, but many other works come to complete and embellish it. Louis Gillot advocated this himself in 1910, through letters written on behalf of the SHNA, at the 48th Congress of the Learned Societies He presents then this herbarium, and speaks about its great scientific value.

**Cryptogamy collection **

• A fungi herbarium including 101 boxes gathering the collections of Carion, Grognot, Lucand, Gillot, Bigeard, Mazzimann, Plassard, etc ;
• The North-american fungi herbarium of Ellis ;
• The watercolors of Captain Lucand ;
• The terracotta mushrooms of Proudhon ;
• Microscope slides prepared by Renault, A. Roche, and Al. Geoffroy ;
• A mosses and liverworts herbarium of Carion and Grognot ;
• Philibert Herbarium ;
• The Herbarium of the most common mosses of Saone-et-Loire by the Abbé Sébille ;
• The Husnot Herbarium ;
• The liverworts of Malbranche ;
• The Algae of J. Lloyd, Le Jolis, Roumeguère, and Lucand ;
• A cecidologic Herbarium made by Chateau, Marchal, and other... ;
• Seeds contained in jars, mostlycoming from the Vilmorin residence.

Phanerogamic Herbaria

• The General Herbarium of the Natural History Society of Autun composed of 114 boxes, including boxes of specimens collected by Dr. Daviot ;
• The Dr. Carion Herbarium, 58 boxes ;
• The Grognot Herbarium, 9 boxes including plants of Saone-et-Loire ;
• The Lucand Herbarium, 71 boxes representing the flora of France ;
• The Lassimonne Herbarium ;
• The Gillot Herbarium ;
• An herbarium containing plants from Algeria and Tunisia ;
• The ferns of Guadeloupe and Martinique ;
• The Herbarium of the Town of Autun ;
• The Ozanon Herbarium.

The Herbarium and the library are available for consultation, to researchers and students, on appointment.

Contact
Museum@grandautunoismorvan.fr

Cirsium richteranium Gillot 1880 – Gillot Herbarium. © Muséum d'Histoire naturelle d'Autun

Dasya coccinea Ag – Herbarium of Algae from Western France.
© Muséum d'Histoire naturelle d'Autun

• Preview of one of the compactus elements containing the herbarium.
  © Muséum d'Histoire naturelle d'Autun

François-Xavier GILLOT (1842-1910), doctor, botanist, president of the Natural History Society of Autun from 1905 to 1910.
© Muséum d'Histoire naturelle d'Autun