Benjamin Heyne

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Benjamin Heyne (born January 1, 1770 in Döbra , Electorate of Saxony ; † February 6, 1819 in Vappera , Madras , British India ) was a German missionary , botanist and naturalist who was the first to observe the Crassulacean acid metabolism . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " B. Heyne ".

Life

Benjamin Heyne received his training in Dresden . As a missionary of the Moravian Brethren , he arrived in the Danish settlement of Tranquebar at the end of 1791 . In 1793 Heyne was in charge of the British East India Company's plantations near Samalkot . In 1799 he accompanied Colin Mackenzie (1754–1821) as a botanist while exploring the Mysore area . From 1802 to 1808 he headed the Lal Bagh Botanical Garden in Bangalore . In 1806 he was a doctor in Cuddapah . During his brief stay in England he was accepted into the Linnean Society of London in 1813 .

Act

In a letter to Aylmer Bourke Lambert , Vice-President of the Linnean Society of London , which was read on April 20, 1813, Heyne described his observations on the Goethe plant : “The leaves of Cotyledon calycina, […] are like this in the morning sour like sorrel, if not more sour. As the day progresses, they lose their acidity and are tasteless by noon. ”This is the first description of the phenomena involved in the Crassulacean acid metabolism .

Heyne collected numerous plants in the East Indies. Some of these were later described by Albrecht Wilhelm Roth in Novae Plantarum Species praesertim Indiae Orientalis (1821). He hires local people to make plant drawings, which are now kept in Kew and the British Library .

Dedication names

William Roxburgh named the Heynea genus of the mahogany family (Meliaceae) in his honor . The euphorbia species Jatropha heynei was also named after him.

Works

  • On the Deoxidation of the Leaves of Cotyledon calycina . In: Transactions of the Linnean Society of London . Volume 11, No. 2, pp. 213-215, doi : 10.1111 / j.1096-3642.1813.tb00051.x , online .
  • Tracts, historical and statistical, on India: with journals of several tours through various parts of the peninsula; also an account of Sumatra, in a series of letters; illustr. by maps and other plates . Baldwin and Black, Parry, London 1814.

proof

literature

  • Ray Desmond: Dictionary of British and Irish botanists and horticulturists: including plant collectors, flower painters, and garden designers . 2nd revised edition, CRC Press, 1994, ISBN 0-85066-843-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry at the Nationaal Herbarium Nederland (accessed November 18, 2009)
  2. ↑ On the Deoxidation of the Leaves of Cotyledon calycina . In: Transactions of the Linnean Society of London . Volume 11, No. 2, p. 213
  3. ^ Hortus Bengalensis, or a Catalog of the Plants Growing in the Hounourable East India Company's Botanical Garden at Calcutta . P. 33, Serampore 1814
  4. ^ Curtis's Botanical Magazine . Plate 1738, online
  5. ↑ Urs Eggli, Leonard E. Newton: Etymological Dictionary of Succulent Plant Names . Birkhäuser, 2004, ISBN 978-3-540-00489-9 , p. 108

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Heyne, Benjamin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German missionary, botanist and naturalist
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH Dobra
DATE OF DEATH February 6, 1819
Place of death Vappera , Madras