Exhibition
Only botany has the privilege of making imperishable medals
Letter from Monsieur de Baune to Philippe Picot de Lapeyrouse, 6 April, 1808
900 letters preserved in the archives of the Museum of Natural History in Paris testify that botany has had an extremely important role in politics since the French Revolution, and particularly under Napoleon. Plants were exchanged between institutions and planted in new territories. They were also named after the Emperor to display political support.
Paying tribute to Napoleon and the Empire
It is said that Napoleon loved cherries. During horse-drawn coach trips, he would eat a small bag of cherries, spitting the stones out of the door. The Bigarreau Napoleon cherry variety (Prunus Avium) is native to Central Asia. It is said that Belgian botanist Louis Joseph Ghislain Parmentier gave this variety the name cherry Napoleon in 1820, stating his political position. The name soon spread to France and England, where some named the cherry bigarreau Wellington, after the name of the commander of the Anglo-Allied army who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. But for posterity, only the Napoleon name has survived.
Wherever they went, Napoleon's armies were ordered to collect roses and send them to the Malmaison. This way, Joséphine collected 250 varieties of roses in the Malmaison’s gardens. The curious shape of the mossy edges of the petals R. centifolia muscosa cristata reminded Jean-Pierre Vibert, its cultivator, of the tricorn, Napoleon's famous hat. This is why he named it 'Chapeau de Napoléon'.
Until his death in 1866, Vibert, who had been a soldier in the Napoleonic army, cultivated the myth of Napoleon and his wife Joséphine through rose culture. He was a founding member of the Société d'Horticulture de Paris (today Société Nationale d'Horticulture). The 'Chapeau de Napoleon’ was one of his most popular roses.
1804, the year of Napoleon's coronation, also saw a new plant family: Napoleonaea. The botanist Ambroise Marie François Joseph Palisot de Beauvois described the first plant of the family, which he named Napoleonaea imperialis. Its showy rosette flowers resemble a crown: a new emperor, a new dynasty, a new family plant.
The Napoleonae family was long accepted by botanists, and later incorporated into the Lecythidaceae. The genus Napoleonaea now counts almost twenty species, all of which are native to tropical western and central Africa.
In 1802, the two Iberian botanists Ruiz and Pavón dedicated a plant collected in Peru for Napoleon, the Bonapartea juncea, nowadays better known as Tillandsia juncea. The Spanish botanists used to dedicate their plants to politicians. The dedication to Napoleon probably intended to link them with the Spanish prime minister Manuel de Godoy, a pro-French who had recently returned to power, as underlined in their dedication:
Genre dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte, re-founder of the reconstituted French republic, first consul, commander always invincible, patron of botany, of all fruitful sciences and the arts (...).
Joséphine and Malmaison, symbols of botanical development
To say that the Empress Joséphine loved plants would probably be an understatement. In 1799, she acquired the Malmaison Palace, which became her pride and joy, as she filled it with exotic plants from all over the world, including the Josephinia imperatricis.
The Josephinia imperatricis belongs to the sesamum genus, a group of plants with edible seeds, such as the Sesamum indicum which gives us sesame seeds. The plant was named after her when it was brought to France in 1803 from New Holland (nowadays Australia), during Baudin’s Expedition.
In 1802, Ruiz and Pavón dedicated the plant Lapageria rosea 'to the excellent Joséphine de La Pagerie, most worthy wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, egregious advocate of botany and natural sciences'. The flower, which originally grows in forests in the southern part of Chile, is better known as Chilean bellflower or copihue, Chile’s national flower. This went hand-in-hand with dedicating the Bonapartea juncea from Peru to Napoleon.
Joséphine’s work in cataloguing and preserving her plants was meticulous. In order to immortalise them, she commissioned the painter Pierre-Joseph Redouté to portray them all. Thanks to his monumental work ‘Les Roses’, today we can identify some lost varieties. The collection of La Malmaison fueled the 19th century nursery industry with some of the most beautiful classes and varieties of roses ever produced. In 1843, Jean Beluze paid homage to the Malmaison's wonder garden with the rose Souvenir de la Malmaison.
Marie Louise of Austria and the violet
Marie Louise of Austria, Napoleon’s second wife, had a more subtle role regarding plants. One of her most remarkable roles is linked to the violet. She was a great admirer of the scent of the small flower and its colour, using it for the uniforms of valets and courtiers. She became Duchess of Parma in 1816, and soon the violet became a symbol of the city. She painted and embroidered them, with the flowers becoming so important to her that she sometimes added a small violet to her signature. Two species of violets were even dedicated to her: Duchess of Parma and Marie Louise.
Strangely enough, it seems Marie Louise became acquainted with violets’ fragrance through Joséphine, Napoleon’s first wife. It is said that Joséphine had a bundle of flowers pinned on her chest when she first met Napoleon. This was a symbol of their love, with Napoleon also adopting violets as a symbol of his party. This is why he has been referred to as the Caporal Violette since then.
Forests: symbol of power
Forests, as well as gardens, were considered as land for productive purposes as well as hunting. This activity always brings with it the question of status: owning a forest and having the right to hunt on it was a privilege reserved for a few people.
Hunting had become unpopular after the French revolution because of its clear links to the Ancien Regime (Old Regime) and aristocracy. However, Napoleon soon understood how important it was for the representation of power. He revived the tradition and organised spectacular hunting parties in his residencies, in Rambouillet, Fontainebleau and Saint-Germain-en-Laye among others. To reinforce his image as a peaceful ruler and seek popular consensus, he also organised hunting 'shows' which the public could attend.
The forest was also a neutral setting for encounters. One of the most famous took place in 1804, with the Pope Pius VII.
Three years before, Napoleon had signed the concordat, returning peace between the Church and State after ten years of tensions linked to the French Revolution. This is why the Pope attended Napoleon's coronation, to fulfil the religious element, even if he was reluctant to take part in the ceremony. When the Pope was on his way to Paris, accompanied by more than 100 people, Napoleon 'accidentally' intercepted his journey during a hunting party in the forest of Fontainebleau. The Pope stepped out of his carriage to join Napoleon in his. They were greeted on their way to the castle by the public and officials, in a very symbolic arrival of the religious and political power together.