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Claude-Casimir Gillet (1806 - 1896) - a brief biography

Claude Casimir Gillet

The information below is derived from many sources; major reference texts are listed at the foot of the page.

French botanist and mycologist Claude-Casimir Gillet was born on 19th May 1806 in Dormans, near Reims, in northeast France. After training as a medical doctor and veterinarian, Gillet earned his living by working as a vet, spending the four years of his army life in Algeria, north Africa, where he spent much of his leisure time studying the fauna and flora of the Mediterranean region.

In his forties Gillet developed a keen interest in mycology - gilled fungi, discomycetes and club fungi in particular. He contributed several papers to the Société Linnéenne de Normandie and continued to write both scientific and popular mycological works until he was well in to his late eighties. In 1876 he promoted Tubaria to full genus status; initially Tubaria had been named by British mycologist W. G. Smith (1835 - 1917) as a subgenus of the genus Agaricus. Gillet was also the taxonomic authority of the club-fungus genus Microglossum (1879).

At the age of 90, Claude-Casimir Gillet died on 1st September 1896 in Alençon, northwest France.

The standard author abbreviation Gillet is used to indicate Claude-Casimir Gillet as the author when citing a botanical/mycological name. (In some publications I have seen the abbreviation Gill. used instead.)

Published Mycological Works

Claude-Casimir Gillet published extensively Below is a selection of his publications:

Gillet, C. -C. (1893) Agaricinées.

Gillet, C. -C. (1879) Les discomycètes, Alençon [France] E. de Broise.

Gillet, C. -C. (1874) Les Hyménomycètes, ou Description de Tous les Champignons (Fungi) qui croissent en France .

Gillet, C. -C. &  Magne, Jean-Henri. (1868) Nouvelle Flore Française.

Gillet, C. -C. (1891) Champignons de France: les gastéromycètes. A. Herpin, 1891

Selected Sources:

Letacq, A.-L. (1896) La Revue Normande, Alençon, A. Herpin, vol. 5-6, pp. 65-67.

Mushroom the Journal

International Plant Names Index

Fascinated by Fungi, 2nd Edition, Pat O'Reilly 2016, reprinted by Coch-y-bonddu Books in 2022.

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