fall 2016 23 he Brothers of La Salle is a Catholic teaching order that focuses on education from elementary to university levels and reaches more than one million students worldwide. Traditionally, this order has promoted natural history studies, and they currently run museums and research journals in this field. Three La Salle brothers were among the most important figures engaged in botanical research in the Caribbean Islands. Our current historical research activities center on the botanical contributions made by these three outstanding naturalists. Our studies have been mostly based on documents and photos housed in the archives of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and of the University of Montreal in Québec, Canada. Two of these brothers, Brother León (Joseph Sylvestre Sauget, 1871–1955) and Brother Alain (Henri Alain Liogier, 1916–2009), were born in France but worked in the La Salle school located in the neighborhood known as El Vedado in Havana, Cuba. They dominated the botanical studies of this island in the first half of the 20th century. The La Salle Brothers were driven out of Cuba in 1961 shortly after the revolution that overthrew Fulgencio Batista. One of us (J. Garrigó) studied in one of La Salle schools in Havana and met these two great naturalists. Brothers León and Alain produced the first comprehensive Flora of Cuba (five volumes and one supplement published between 1947 and 1969). After Brother Alain left Cuba, he worked for the National Botanic Garden of the Dominican Republic and for the Botanic Garden of the University of Puerto Rico. Indeed the fifth volume of his Flora de Cuba was published in Puerto Rico. Brother Alain became one the most important and knowledgeable plant taxonomists in the botanical history of the West Indies. He published the latest floras for the islands of Hispaniola (9 volumes, between 1981 ABOVE (L-R)) From left to right: Brother Néstor María, Dr. Thomas Barbour, Dr. David Fairchild, and Brother León at the main courtyard entrance of the La Salle school at El Vedado, Havana. February 23, 1935. Courtesy of the Fairchild Botanic Garden Archives. Main courtyard entrance of the La Salle school at El Vedado, Havana, May, 2015. Courtesy of Brother Agustín Enciso Archives and Library. T Seal of the La Salle Brothers
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