Jean Louis Berlandier

Working for Auguste Pyrame DeCandolle, author of Prodormus, a book on plants of the world, the French-Swiss Berlandier collected and reported on plants in Mexico in 1826. In 1827 he joined the Mexican Boundary Commission as its botanist, zoologist and naturalist. With the Commission, he made botanical collections near Laredo, San Antonio, Gonzales, San Felipe. He also prepared ethnographic reports on more than 30 Native American tribes in southeastern Texas and northeastern Mexico, including the Omanche, Lipan Apache, and Tonkawa. Later, in 1834, he returned to Texas and did floral and faunal research in the Goliad area.