TURPIN, Pierre Jean Francois, French botanist, born in Vire, Calvados, France, 11 March, 1775; died in Paris, 1 May, 1840. He enlisted when he was fourteen years old in the battalion of Calvados, and sailed with it for Santo Domingo in 1794. There he made the acquaintance of the botanist Poiteau, who gave him lessons in botany. After studying, with great care, the flora of the island, he returned to France, but, received permission some time afterward to pay a second visit to Santo Domingo. He next explored the flora of the island of Tortuga, funds for the purpose having been supplied by the consul of the United States. He spent more than a year there, and made a rich collection of plants and designs. Poiteau went to the United States in 1800, and Turpin was pharmacist to the French army in Santo Domingo during Leclerc's expedition, and then sailed for the United States, where he became a teacher in New Orleans and Philadelphia, and, meeting Baron yon Humboldt, returned with him to France. He afterward executed the iconographic part of several of Humboldt's works. Turpin wrote many works, among them "Lemons de flore" (Paris, 1819); "Essai d'une iconographie elementaire et philosophique des vegetaux, avec un texte explica, tif" (1820) ; and "Iconographie vegetale, ou organisation des vegeaux" (1841).