Austrian Botanist Wenceslas Bojer was associated with the Pamplemousses Botanic Garden, initially assisting John White (1783-1830), as Acting Director (1848-184) and later assisting James Duncan (1802-1876).
Growing up as the son of a gardener; Wenceslas Bojer’s exceptional aptitude for botany brought him to gain a position in the Imperial Museum in Vienna and later led him to form part of an expedition to Madagascar and Mauritius (1821-1823). Bojer returned to Mauritius in 1824 with pods of the Flamboyant (Delonix regia) that he discovered in Madagascar and now grown as an ornamental tree throughout the tropical India and Sri Lanka.
His friend Charles Telfair convinced him to stay with him on the Bois Chéri estate in Mauritius and work on the floristics of Mauritius. Bojer was appointed Professor of Botany (1826-1832) at the Royal College in Mauritius and later Professor of Natural History and Agricultural Chemistry (1855-1856). Also known as a naturalist, Bojer collected amphibia and was a founder member of the Société d’Histoire Naturelle de l’Ile Maurice and elected vice-president (1829-1856).
Along with Louis Bouton; Wenceslas Bojer formed a small colonial herbarium, later incorporated into the Mauritius Institute herbarium, now the herbarium of the Mauritius Sugar Industry Research Institute (MAU). Some of his original material was transferred to Kew Garden.
The plant genus Bojeria DC. In the Asteraceae was named in his honour.