Bertrand, Charles-Eugéne or Charles-Egmont

(b. Paris, France, 2 January 1851; d. Lille, France, 10 August 1917)

plant anatomy.

After studying natural science at the Sorbonne and working for a short time in the laboratory of the Faculty of Sciences at Paris, Bertrand spent the rest of his scientific career at the University of Lille. He considered himself primarily a botanist, although much of his work furthered geologists’ understanding of coals and the evolution of the extinct plants found in them. He concentrated on aberrant or anamalous forms, and by this’ method discovered the phylogenetic relations not recognizable solely from normal types. Bertrand’s monographs on aberrant forms developed primarily the affinities and filiations of thallophytes, higher vascular cryptogams (the ferns and club mosses), and lower phanerogams (the ancient gymnosperms).

Because plant fragments in coal are generally mutilated, Bertrand endeavored to learn the comparative anatomy of the vegetative structures (primarily stems), which are preserved. This anatomical knowledge permitted him to identify numerous forms for which the usual keys—leaf and flower morphology—failed. He was one of the earliest to examine thin sections of the carbonaceous rocks by means of the ordinary light microscope. This new technique contributed further to his success in differentiating the natures and compositions of the various types of coal. He showed bogheads to be primarily accumulations of algae, sometimes with other debris mixed in, all cemented by a primitive, humic paste (gelée fondamentale). In cannel coals, spores predominate. The gelée fondamentale is also a primary constituent in common coals and in two kinds of bituminous shales (charbons humiques and charbons de purins).

Part of Bertrand’s fame rests on his establishment at the University of Lille of a laboratory famous for both education and research. Many of his studies were produced with collaborators, most notably with his son Paul, a paleobotanist.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

E. Morvillez, Charles-Eugéne Bertrand (Caen, 1918), is the most complete biography and includes a bibliography of Bertrand’s writings. Another bibliography is in Giuseppe de Toni, ed., Bibliographia algologica universalis (Forli, 1932), pp. 247–252. For his geological work in particular, see the following unsigned articles: “L’oeuvre géologique de C. Eg. Bertrand,” In Annales de la Société géologique du nord, 44 (1919), 47–64 (see also 6–7); and “Célébration du centenaire de Ch. Barrois et Ch.-E. Bertrand et du souvenir de P. Bertrand,” ibid., 71 (1951), 135–143.

Bert Hansen