Étienne Soulange-Bodin

[1] Though he is otherwise scarcely remembered today, he played a major role in the organization of professional horticulture in France, 1815–1845.

[4] In 1796, he served for a year as secretary to the French embassy to Constantinople, and then fulfilled several administrative functions upon his return to France.

In 1807, he was nominated Intendant in the cabinet of advisors to prince Eugène de Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy, whom he followed in his diplomatic campaigns.

He purchased the 70 hectare château de Fromont[5] at Ris-Orangis (Essonne), where he laid out what was virtually a botanical garden, which gained him the breadth of horticultural experience that informed his publications.

He then assembled every new vegetable he could find, raising the quality of the gardens to the highest level set by the English at Kew.