Société botanique de France
learned society
The Société botanique de France (SBF) is a French learned society founded on 23 April 1854. At its inaugural meeting it stated its purpose as "to contribute to the progress of botany and related sciences and to facilitate, by all means at its disposal, the education and the work of its members" (Article 2 of the founding statutes).
Foundation
The creation of the society was a result of a meeting on 12 March 1854 of the following sixteen botanists, who became founding members:
Antoine François Passy (1792–1873)
Adolphe Brongniart (1801–1876), professor at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle
Joseph Decaisne (1807–1882), professor at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle
Horace Bénédict Alfred Moquin-Tandon (1801–1863)
Count Hippolyte Jaubert (1798–1874)
Louis Graves (1791–1857), director general of forests
Vicomte de Noé
Timothée Puel (1812–1890)
Charles Philippe Robin (1821–1885), former Chief Inspector of Roads and Bridges
Alphonse Maille (1813–1865)
Ernest Saint-Charles Cosson (1819–1889)
Pierre Étienne Simon Duchartre (1811–1894)
Wladimir de Schoenefeld (1816–1875)
Adolphe De Bouis (1804–1878), doctor of medicine
Jacques Nicolas Ernest Germain de Saint-Pierre (1815–1882)
François Simon Cordier (1797–1874), former Army doctor and botanist
Three of these participants, L. Graves, A. Passy and W. de Schoenefeld, formed a committee and established society rules inspired by the Société géologique de France in whose creation Louis Graves had taken part. The Société géologique de France also hosted the first meeting of the SBF. During the first official meeting, which took place on 24 May 1854, a committee was elected. It included A. Brongniart as president, J. Decaisne, D. Delessert and H. Moquin-Tandon as Vice-Presidents, W. de Schoenefeld and P. Duchartre as Secretaries, T. Puel and E. Cosson as vice-secretaries, Caillette de Hervilliers as treasurer and de Bouis as archivist.
In 1868 the SBF relocated to the new premises of the National Horticultural Society of France before moving, in 1949, into the premises of the Faculté de pharmacie de Paris. It was recognized as a public utility by decree of 17 August 1875. In the 1920s, several plant collections held by the Society were placed in various institutions for the conservation that the Society was not able to provide.
Publications
Since its foundation it has published the proceedings of its ordinary and extraordinary meetings and a review of literature. Extraordinary meetings are held in various cities in France so that members from outside Paris can also participate in the activities of the society.
The public source identifies “Société botanique de France” as learned society. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Société, botanique and France.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1506427. VIAF identifies the subject as 122818027. The Library of Congress control number is n85086698. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1854, 1792, 1873 and 1801.
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This entry incorporates text from “Société botanique de France” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.