ZEILLER, RENé CHARLES

(b. Nancy, France, 14 January 1847; d. Paris France,27 November 1915)

paleobotany

A number of Zeiller’s ancestors were graduates of the École Polytechnique and his family environment was propitious to his intellectual development. He early developed an interest in botany through contact with his maternal grandfather, Charles Guibal, who took him on excursions through the Lorraine countryside. After attending the Lycee Bonaparte in Paris and then the lycee in Nancy, Zeiller studied at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and at the Ecole des Mines in Nancy, where he obtained his degree in 1870.

At the beginning of 1871 Zeiller was named engineer of the sous–arrondissement of Tours and assigned to supervise work on a portion of the Orleans railway. He returned to Paris in 1874, still working for the same administration and holding the same rank for ten years, until his promotion to chief engineer. In 1882 he transferred to the Service de Topographie Souterraine des Bassins Houillers de France. Rising steadily through the hierarchy of the Conseil General des Mines, he ultimately became its president in 1911. Admired for his scrupulousness in fulfilling his duties, he was appointed, in addition, a member of the Commission des Appareils a Vapeur.

Zeiller’s first publications dealt with technical subjects, namely with the applicatioin of geology to the detection of metal-bearing deposits. Although he faithfully executed all his administrative tasks, he still found time to pursue his interest in the study of fossil plants. In this research he was able to profit from his knowledge of both botany and geology and to draw conclusions useful in onbe or the other of these fields. In 1878 he was appointed chargé de cours of plant palceontology at the École des Mines in Paris. Named curator of the school’s paleontology collections in 1881, he made such important additions to the collections that scientists came from all over the world to study them

Zeiller studied fossil plants in order to determine their structures and relationships. At the same time he viewed them as constituents of large groups, the relative ages and geographic distribution of which he attempted to establish. His various memoirs in the series Gites minerau_x de la France (published by the Ministry of Public Works) are models of good scientific publications. In them he dealt also with purely botanical questions. For example, he investigated the mode of fructification of fossil ferns, a subject that long had held his attention. In the course of answering questions raised by leading scientists who held opposing views, Zeiller elaborated several brilliant demonstrations. He proved that Sigillaria, in spite of their centrifugal secondary wood and the composition of the vascular strands of their leaves, are cryptogams. This conclusion, a result of his discovery of cones, was in opposition to the French school of Brongniart but in accord with English authors. Through his study of carbonaceous impressions of Sphenophvlhtm fructifications, Zeiller arrived at the conclusion that these plants have no true relation with any living type. His description of several species of Psaronius constitutes a model of anatomical research.

Zeiller was especially interested in the Cycadofilicales, and his clear and precise account of the “Fougères à graines” is still worth reading. Finally, after his trenchant critique, the existence of a group of so-called proangiosperms (proposed by Gaston de Saporta) could no longer be accepted.

Zeiller did not restrict his numerous publications to material gathered in France. Through his study of the Glossopteris floras (he established that they come from the Permian-Triassic period, as the geologists held)m and his attribution of different ages-and not always from the Carboniferous-to coals of varied origins (Tonkin, Chile, NewCaledonia),he was the author of several revolutionary ideas

Zeiller had an impressive capacity for work. Beyond his professional activities and personal research, he also wrote a remarkable treatise on paleobotany and regularly published bibliographic analyses containing abundant new critical commentary. In spite of an incurable disease, he retained his kindly manner until the very end.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

On Zeiller and his work, see G.Bonnier, “René Zeiller,” in Revue générale de botanique28 (1916),354–367. with portrait, and ibid., 29 (1917), 33–55,which lists his works; A.Carpentier, “René Zeiller (1847-1915).Son oeuvre paléobotanique,” in Bulletin. Société botanique de France25 5th ser. (1928), 46–67, with portrait and list of Zeiller’s works: and D.H.Scott, “Charls René Zeiller,” in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London(1916) 74–78.

F. Stockmans