Vavilov found Father Bouloumou near death, and his herbarium “in a deplorable condition”. I could find no trace of Bouloumou or the herbarium in Google. Then I looked for the manuscript of Flora of Syria Vavilov wrote about. Could this be it? Alas, no, although it is immensely interesting. But it had a bibliography. And that had an entry for:
Bouloumoy, L., Flore du Liban et de la Syrie.-Paris. (1930), pp. viii. 1-431; Atlas : Pl. 1-508.
So that was one mystery. Bouloumou in Vavilov’s text had become Bouloumoy, a common enough difference. More astonishing still, a copy, pages uncut, had been sold on eBay just last month. Armed with which I was able to discover that there’s a copy in the Smithsonian Institution libraries and that his name was Louis.
Bouloumoy, L., Flore du Liban et de la Syrie.-Paris. (1930)
None of which really matters, but … how I love the internets.
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Ok, but what happened to the Father’s herbarium?