Joseph-François Charpentier de Cossigny, was born on Isle de France in 1736 and passed away in 1809 in France. He is the son of Jean-François Charpentier de Cossigny, an engineer of the French East India Company.
Cossigny embarked on a study trip to China and Bengal in between 1751 and 1752, before serving under his father’s command in Pondicherry in 1753.
Cossigny went on a Diplomatic mission in Batavia in 1761, returned in 1762 with two varieties of sugarcane: Lahaina and Otahite. He established an estate called Palma in 1764 and created experimental gardens in which he introduced the litchi, the Cossigny or Dauphinee mango, the millepertuis Hypericum monogynum and the fake mangoustan, Gardenia sp; the jamalac Syzygium aqueum, the fig tree Ficus carica, the apricot, the prune and the big lemon.
In 1766, Cossigny returned from Bengal and brought the Bois Noir Albizia Lebbeck to the Jardin du Roi at Mon Plaisir. Based on his research on the different trees on Mauritius, Cossigny recommended the culture of Bois Noir as it was the best for producing charcoal used to make gunpowder.
Cossigny obtained the noble title of Gendarme in 1770 and thereafter added De Palma to his name and became thereafter known as Joseph François Charpentier de Cossigny de Palma.
In 1774, Cossigny de Palma became the correspondent to Louis-Guillaume Le Monnier, the main medical doctor of the king at Royal Academy of Science.
As an engineer, Joseph François Charpentier de Cossigny de Palma was tasked to be the architect and designer of the new powder mills in Pamplemousses after the explosion of the one at Baie aux Tortues in 1774.
As from 1775, Cossigny de Palma collaborated closely with Jean Nicholas Céré on expanding the Jardin du Roi into a Botanical Garden.
Cossigny de Palma gave the idea of erecting an Obélisque in the Garden, onto which the names of inhabitants who had introduced useful plants to Isle de France were to be inscribed.
In 1801, Joseph François Charpentier de Cossigny de Palma returned to France leaving behind him large number of his scientific works on agriculture and industry in Isle de France.