John Miers
John Miers (born August 25, 1789 in London , † October 17, 1879 ibid) was a British botanist and civil engineer. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Miers ".
Life
Miers was born in London to a jeweler originally from Yorkshire . As a teenager he already worked in his father's business, spending his scant free time studying science and thus acquiring knowledge mainly in mineralogy and chemistry . His first work (on nitrogen ) was published in the Annals of Philosophy in 1814 .
He married in 1818. His wife was around 7 years younger than him and her first name was Annie (or Queenie, her first name is not entirely certain). Immediately afterwards, because of his mineralogical knowledge, Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald invited him to a business venture in Chile, where he was supposed to help explore and develop the country's mineral raw materials, especially copper. In May 1819, Miers started the journey with his wife and equipped with the necessary heavy equipment. After sailing as far as Buenos Aires, he traveled over the pampas and the Cordilleras to the mine area; his wife fell seriously ill with puerperal fever during the trip . On site, Miers then decided against doing business because he considered the funding to be unprofitable. This decision turned out to be a wrong decision; just a few decades later, Chilean copper covered large parts of the world market.
Instead, Miers turned to the local flora, which at the time had hardly been explored. In 1825 he returned to London with his work “ Travels in Chile and La Plata ” with him. Its appearance in two volumes in 1826 made him the leading authority on the geography and culture of the region in one fell swoop.
At the end of the 1920s, Miers received an order from the Argentine government to supply the mint in Buenos Aires with machines and to assemble them. In order to bring his family to his home, he crossed the continent twice and collected intensively, especially in the pampas. By 1831 these ventures failed due to political instability and Miers moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he had been offered a similar contract by the Brazilian government. Here, too, he collected numerous plants, regardless of the difficult professional circumstances.
In 1838 Miers withdrew from business life and left South America for London, where he devoted himself entirely to working on his collection, which now comprised over 25,000 pieces. He published extensively in magazines, and many of his publications appeared a second time in book form, provided with lithographs from his own hand. In 1853 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .
Almost 90 years old, Miers died on October 17, 1879 at his home in Kensington. He had a daughter and two sons, one of whom followed in his footsteps as a civil engineer in South America and one of his grandsons was Henry Alexander Miers , Professor of Mineralogy at Oxford .
reception
His most important work is the third volume of his Contributions to the Botany of South America , a monograph on the Menispermaceae family .
Mier's numerous publications as a pioneer of a still little-known flora made him a respected figure in science of his time, regardless of his autodidactic training. He was a member of numerous scientific societies and was Vice-President of the Botanical Society of London for over a decade.
Many of Miers' work, however, suffer from his clear taxonomic weaknesses. In this context, Allen speaks of Miers “ poor judgment as a classifier ” and cites the numerous taxa in his descriptions that are no longer recognized today. Regardless of this, his work has remained important to this day, and many of his descriptions are still recognized to this day. Maas et al. particularly appreciate his collections and studies of mycotrophic plants.
Honors
Three species were named in his honor: Miersiella Urb. from the Burmanniaceae family , Miersia Lindl. from the family of the Amaryllis plants (Amaryllidaceae) and Miersiophyton Engl. from the family of the moon seed plants (Menispermaceae). He is also the namesake for Miers Bluff , a headland on Livingston Island, part of the South Shetland Islands, and possibly also for Meier Point , a headland on Coronation Island, part of the South Orkney Islands.
Works
- Travels in Chile and La Plata , 2 volumes, 1826
- Illustrations of South American Botany , 2 volumes, 1850–57
- Contributions to the Botany of South America , 3 volumes, 1867–71
proof
- DE Allen: Miers, John (1789–1879) , in: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, online, accessed October 11, 2007
Individual evidence
- ↑ PJM Maas, H. Maas-van de Kamer, J. van Bentham, HCM Snelders, T. Rübsamen: Burmanniaceae , Flora Neotropica, Monogr. 42: 127,1986
- ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
Web links
- Author entry and list of the described plant names for John Miers at the IPNI
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Miers, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British botanist and civil engineer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 25, 1789 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 17, 1879 |
| Place of death | London |