He was an amateur botanist who started a garden of alpine plants, still maintained as the Chanousia Alpine Botanical Garden located at located at 2170 meters altitude near Mont Blanc, at the Little St Bernard Pass in France, but maintained by the frontier Italian commune of La Thuile (Aosta Valley).
But his links to the botanist Lino Vaccari (1873 – 1951), aided his interest in botanical collection and cultivation, in part seeking to increase the ability of these regions to serve agriculture.
[1] He received funds for his Chanousia Alpine Botanical Garden (founded in 1897) from his religious order and the Ministry of Agriculture.
[2] A hospice on the Italian side of the border, located at 2200 meters above sea level, had been erected at this pass in the 11th century by Bernard of Menthon, later canonized.
The convent, based on the passage now known of Little St Bernard, included a hospice that ministered to pilgrims travelling mainly to Rome.