George Samuel Perrottet

Who was George Samuel Perrottet?

George Samuel Perrottet was a Swiss-born, French botanist and horticulturalist who was a native of Vully, canton Vaud.

He worked as a gardener at the Jardin des Plantes, and in 1819-21 was as a naturalist on an expedition commanded by Naval Captain Pierre Henri Philibert. Perrottet's duties on the journey involved collecting plants in Réunion, Java, and the Philippines for re-plantation and cultivation in Guyane.

From 1824 to 1829 he performed explorations in Senegambia, where he served as administrator of "Sénégalaise", a government outpost and trading company. Prior to returning to France in 1829, he explored Gorée Island and Cape Verde. With Jean Baptiste Antoine Guillemin and Achille Richard, he published a work on the flora of Senegambia called Florae Senegambiae Tentamen, with its illustrative work being done by Joseph Decaisne.

In 1832 Perrottet was appointed correspondent of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, and from 1834 to 1839 was assigned to the botanical garden in Pondicherry. In 1839 he returned to France, where he became involved with silkworm cultivation. From 1843 until his death in 1870, he worked as a botanist in Pondicherry.