Francisco Adolfo Sauvalle Chaceaulme

A botanist distinguished for his contributions to the knowledge of Cuba's medicinal flora, as well as for his work in correcting botanical classifications and in the collection of numerous plant species.

He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on July 1st, 1807, and died in La Habana on February 1st, 1878.

At the age of seven, he was sent by his parents to France to study at the Lycée de Rouen, in Normandy, studies that he continued later in other European countries.

As of 1824, he settled in Cuba, on a property he owned in Vuelta Abajo—near the town of San Cristóbal, in Pinar del Río—in an environment favorable to the investigation of nature.

As a methodological contribution, he provided common names for the species he classified, which was a deficiency in botanical works of the Antilles, and particularly of Cuba.

Among the diverse plant species he compiled and classified, he dedicated the Zamia Gutierrezii Sauv to the president of the Real Academia de Ciencias Médicas, Físicas y Naturales de La Habana, doctor Nicolás José Gutiérrez. Among his most significant works is the Flora Cubana or Revisio Catalogui Grisebachiani vel Index Plantarum Cubensium. His valuable contributions related to island plants were presented in Flora Médica Cubana, a work with which he contributed to directing the study of plant therapeutics in Cuba.

He was a corresponding member of the Elliot Society of Natural Sciences in Charleston (1855) and a member of the Real Academia de Ciencias Médicas, Físicas y Naturales de La Habana (1867), where he served as president of the Section of Physical and Natural Sciences in 1868, as vice president in 1873-1874 and 1875, as secretary (1874-1879), and finally as a member of merit since 1877. He was unanimously elected as a practicing member of the Liceo Artístico y Literario de La Habana in 1868, and as a corresponding member of the one in Matanzas, in the same year.

Since 1867 he was a full member of the Real Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País, where he was promoted to secretary of correspondence in 1870, to vice president of the First Section of Agriculture and Statistics in 1871, later to president (1873, 1875, and 1878), and was granted the status of Honorary Member in 1872.

He also served as a member of the Jurisdictional Board of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce and was appointed a member of the Wine Commission by the governor general. Likewise, his multiple social activity led him to be elected president of the town council of Regla (1874-1878); full member and honorary director of the Sociedad de Beneficencia de Socorros Mutuos and president of the Conferencia de San Vicente de Paúl (1875). Finally, he was a promoter of the Local Board of Public Instruction of Regla and its first president, in 1876.

He stood out for his interest in Cuba's medicinal flora, as well as for the rectification of botanical classifications and the compilation of numerous plant species, among which it is worth noting that he dedicated one of them to the President of the Academy, doctor Nicolás José Gutiérrez, which he named: "Zamia Gutierrezii Sauv". Also of great merit was the addition of common names to these species, a gap that existed in the botanical works of the Antilles and especially in Cuba.

Works
Among his most important works is: "Flora Cubana" or "Revisio Catalogi Gusebachiani vel Index Plantarum Cubensium". His wise investigations about indigenous plants were reflected in his work "Flora Médica Cubana", with which he contributed to the implementation of his project related to the study of Cuban plant therapeutics.