1526-1609

French botanist, also known as Carolus Clusius, who helped found the science of botany by cultivating exotic and fungal plants, including the potato (1588). L'Ecluse also wrote extensively on the subject of botany. He was appointed director of the emperor's garden in Vienna, Austria, from 1573-87 and in 1593 was made professor of botany at Leyden in the Netherlands. L'Ecluse first studied law in Belgium, then medicine in Germany; he received a medical degree in 1555.