Philippe Van Tieghem

Born Apr. 19, 1839, in Bayel; died Apr. 30, 1914, in Paris. French botanist and microbiologist. Member (1877), vice-president (1898), and president (1899) of the Academy of Sciences.

Van Tieghem began teaching at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in 1864 and became a professor at the Museum of Natural History in Paris in 1879. He was the founder of the evolutionary school in plant anatomy and was the first to use anatomical methods in systematics, proposing a system of classifying angiospermous plants on the basis of the anatomical structure of the ovule and seed. In collaboration with H. Douliot, van Tieghem developed the stelar theory. He was the author of works on methods of cultivating and studying plants under artificial conditions, including the hanging-drop method.