Henrietta Cerf (1810-1877), botaniste amatrice belge

Admittedly, few women practised botany as a science before the end of the 19th century, but this number is also underestimated. For various reasons, major figures such as Clémence Lortet and Julienne Dugage de Pommereul have been overlooked. A Jamaican-born Belgian botanist, Henrietta Cerf (1810-1877), is one of these forgotten botanists, although she published no fewer than nine articles, second only chronologically to Marie-Anne-Libert. We retrace her life, trying to understand where her passion for botany came from and why she decided to publish. Her collaborations are detailed, as is her rapid demise in the early twentieth century. Her West Indian origin may well have played an important role in her career.