Louis Bouton was a botanist born in Port Louis in 1800. He can be considered as the second most well-known botanist in Mauritius during the 19th century after Wencelas Bojer.
In 1826, Louis Bouton and Julien Desjardins made a request to Governor Sir Lowry Cole to set up a museum in Mauritius. On 14 October 1842, the Desjardins Museum was opened to the public, in a wing of the old Royal College in Port Louis, where it remained for 42 years.
Along with around thirty other naturalists, Louis Bouton founded The Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Mauritius under the name of Natural History Society of Mauritius in 1829.
Bouton was also a teacher and a keen believer on the usefulness of botany in the development of the colony. He published widely on the Society, botany and the economic forestry of the island.
Several plant species are named after Louis Bouton, notably the Trochetia boutoniana; floral emblem of the Republic of Mauritius since 1992.
The Bouton skink Cryptoblepharus buttonii ; a newly identified endemic lizard species also bears his name:Louis Bouton became the Director of the Desjardins Museum in 1856. He worked there till his death at the age of 79.