Louis Antoine de Bougainville

Louis Antoine de Bougainville

A Friend of Baret Today is the anniversary of the death of the French admiral and explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville, who died on this day in 1729. On Bougainville’s expedition, a woman named Jeanne Baret joined the crew after posing as a valet to the expedition’s naturalist: Philibert Commerçon. Commerçon had terrible health, and…

Read More

Plants Inspired by People

Poinsettia

And it was on this day in 1950 that The Ithaca Journal out of Ithaca New York published a question from a reader.   The reader wanted an answer to this question: Please list a few plants that are named for people. The answer: The poinsettia was named ‘for Joel R. Poinsett, a famous statesman.  …

Read More