Sébastien René Lenormand

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Sébastien René Lenormand (2 April 1796 – 10 December 1871) was a French lawyer who became a botanist, focusing on algae (phycology). He studied law in Paris from 1817 and, after graduating in 1820, practiced in Vire. In 1835 he left law and moved to an estate called Lénaudières to devote himself to botany. He built a large herbarium mostly of algae and gathered many specimens from naturalists who traveled around the world, even though he never left France. He edited two exsiccatae, Thalissophytes de France. Series I and Thalissophytes de France. Series II. The algae genus Lenormandia was named after him in 1845 by Otto Wilhelm Sonder. His specimens are kept in major herbaria worldwide, including in Brazil, France, Harvard (USA), and Victoria (Australia).