Note 140 — Chapter IV · SPECIES OF AMERICAN GRAPES.

Jules Emile Planchon, a French systematic and horticultural botanist, was born in Ganges (Herault) in 1823, and died at Montpellier in 1888. Planchon was a writer of many valuable monographs on botanical subjects and in combination with F. Sahut and J. Bazille discovered that the cause of a mysterious and serious malady which had been affecting the French vineyards for some years, was due to an insect on the roots, the phylloxera. Later, he and C. V. Riley determined that this insect was a native of America. Planchon was one of the first to suggest, and always urged, the reconstitution of French vineyards by the use of American stocks. During the later years of his life he was professor of botany in the School at Montpellier. His most noted contribution to grape literature is his monograph of the grape vine and other plants of the Ampelopsis family which appeared as the second half of the fifth volume of the continuation of De Candolle’s Prodromus Systematis Naturalis.