[A little known great botanist of indochinese flora: Paul Louis Simond]

Alongside his brilliant scientific and administrative career, Paul Louis Simond, a famous colonial doctor, was also an observer of nature and excellent botanist. Following in the tradition begun two centuries earlier by medical doctors and pharmacists in the marine and army health services, Paul Louis Simond showed particularly interest in the family of Indichenese orchids during the third visit he made to the country in 1914-1917, while he was inspector of the health service. There remain a splendid collection of 226 watercolours depicting the different species of orchids which he had painted by a local artist on live model he was cultivating himself or had had sent to him from all over Indochina both officially and privately. Most of the plates he determined himself, accompanying them by a thorough and exact hand-written description of the floral organs allowing their identification. His knowledge in the area was worthy of a professional and he contributed largely to the botanical description of a region which is still far from being completed. Whilst the plates in the collection are of unequal scientific value (sometimes they are unfinished or without a detailed floral description, or they are copies of already existing plates), the greater part (160) constitutes a considerable original contribution to the knowledge of Indochinese orchidological flora (21 types). The entire collection was bequeathed in 1947 to the laboratoire of Phanérogamie of the Muséum National d'Histoire naturelle, where it can be consulted by scholars.