D'Incarville was born in
Louviers (although some sources cite
Rouen). He entered the Jesuit order in 1727 and taught in
Quebec between 1730 and 1739 before being sent on a mission to China in 1740. He was a pupil of
Bernard de Jussieu, whom he called "mon maître en botanique" (my teacher in botanics). In Chine he was tasked with converting the
Qianlong Emperor of China, but the emperor showed little interest and denied d'Incarville access to the imperial gardens. However, when the emperor was shown some sensitive plants (
Mimosa pudica) that d'Incarville had grown, he was so amused that he allowed the Jesuit into the gardens. D'Incarville was on excellent terms with the emperor, and he continued to introduce many other European plants to him during his time in China. D'Incarville described and sent back seeds of several plants then unknown in Europe as a correspondent of the
Jardin des Plantes. He was not a professional botanist, but was nonetheless well educated in the field and was made a correspondent of
Claude Joseph Geoffroy at the
Académie des Sciences in
Paris after refusing to become a foreign associate of the
Royal Society. Plants he introduced to the Western world include the tree of heaven (
Ailanthus altissima), the
pagoda tree (
Styphnolobium japonicum),
Koelreuteria paniculata and
Toona sinensis. He was also the first European to describe the
kiwifruit. D'Incarville died in
Beijing in June 1757.
Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu named the
bignoniaceae genus
Incarvillea after him. == Bibliography ==