Achille Richard

Achille Richard (1794 to 1852) was a French botanist, botanical illustrator and physician, the son of the botanist Louis-Claude Marie Richard. He worked as a pharmacist in the French navy and became a leading botanist whose books remain valued for their clarity and precision. On 24 February 1834 he was made a member of the French Academy of Sciences in its Botanical Section, and he was also a member of the French National Academy of Medicine. He studied and described several genera of orchids that carry his author abbreviation, among them Ludisia. His publications include the Nouveaux Éléments de Botanique of 1819, which reached an eleventh edition in 1876, a monograph on the genus Hydrocotyle in 1820, a monograph on the orchids of Mauritius and Réunion in 1828, a memoir on the family Rubiaceae in 1829, a flora of New Zealand in 1832, the natural history for the Voyage en Abyssinie, and the botany of Cuba in 1845.