February 4th, 1778: Augustin Pyrame de Candolle was born. He was a Swiss botanist who developed the scientific structural standards for determining the relationships between plant genera naturally. The factual basis for a contemporary evolutionary history of plants was provided by Candolle’s criteria after Charles Darwin introduced the concepts of organic evolution. For nearly 50 years, his plant classification method was used almost universally, serving as a prototype for subsequent classification schemes. He is credited for the introduction of the Dole grape variety in Switzerland in 1820.
Header image: Lorenz Poffet — via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
