Cornelis Andries Backer

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Cornelis Andries Backer (1900)

Cornelis Andries Backer (born September 18, 1874 in Oudenbosch , † February 22, 1963 in Heemstede ) was a Dutch botanist . His merits lie mainly in the research and classification of the Javanese flora. He undertook his botanical research trips to the Dutch-Indian (now part of Indonesia ) islands of Java and Madura . His botanical author abbreviation is " Backer ".

signature

Live and act

Netherlands (1874-1900)

Birth Certificate (1874)

Backer was born on September 18, 1874 in Oudenbosch as the son of an elementary school teacher. At its birth certificate was last name as Ba k ker instead of Ba c ker written. He attended the teacher training college in Haarlem (1889-1893). Here he already showed an interest in botany . During this time he met the Dutch botanists Hendrik Heukels and Eli Heimans.

Dutch East Indies (1901–1930)

Backer (1930)

Weltevreden

In 1901 Backer moved to the Dutch East Indies . From 1901 to 1905 he worked as a school teacher at a private boarding school in Weltevreden . He immediately started collecting plants. Due to the lack of a good flowery about the plants in his area, he decided to write a flora himself, with the plant species in his vicinity as a starting point. These facts were milestones in his life and in Javanese botany .

Buitenzorg

Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg (1910)

Backer visited Melchior Treub , director of the Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg . He was hired by Treub as an assistant at the botanical laboratory and Treub commissioned him to write a school flora from Java and to teach at the agricultural school in Buitenzorg. From 1905 to 1924 Backer worked for the Botanical Garden. He set up a herbarium that contained no fewer than 36,000 plants. He had collected these plants on many expeditions, often under exhausting conditions, on the island of Java and on the neighboring island of Madura . He then walked 30 to 40 km a day.

Pasuruan

From 1924 to 1931 Backer worked at the “Research Institute for the Java Sugar Industry” in Pasuruan, East Java . Here he explored the relationship between the weed - species in the cane fields and the yield of sugarcane .

The biological Krakatau problem

Lithograph from 1888 of the Krakatau eruption in 1883

Krakatau (also Krakatoa ) is a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait between the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java . The volcano erupted several times over the past centuries. The most famous eruption , in which the entire volcanic island was almost completely destroyed, occurred on August 27, 1883. The Krakatau blew itself up in a huge phreatomagmatic eruption . The volcanic island of Krakatau, located in the Sundaer between Java and Sumatra, was robbed of its entire living world by the massive eruption of its volcano, along with two neighboring islands.

The biological Krakatau problem is the question: Did relics of the ancient flora and fauna survive the eruption of 1883 and contribute to the repopulation of the Krakatau Islands? After the eruption, some expeditions were carried out to study the flora. Backer had taken part in two research trips (1906 and 1908). In 1929 Backer published his controversial book The problem of Krakatao, as seen by a botanist. He claimed that there was not complete but partial destruction of the vegetation during the volcanic eruption on August 27, 1883. Rhizomes and diaspores may have been buried undamaged and germinated again. In fact, this possibility cannot be completely ruled out. The examinations in the first quarter of a century were carried out at too large and too unequal intervals and, above all, with too little time and with far too few resources. The assumption that all life on Krakatau was completely destroyed by the eruptions of 1883 is not based on in-depth biological research in the first year, but on statements and statements made by non-biologists. It was only in 1886 that the first botanist, Melchior Treub , carried out a study of the flora. However, in 1884 grasses were already noticed on the slopes by the Dutch geologist Rogier Verbeek .

Backer (1934)
Flora of Java , Volume 3 (1968)

Return to the Netherlands (1931–1963)

In 1931 Backer returned to the Netherlands with his family. The family first settled in Haarlem and later in Heemstede . Until his last years he devoted himself to his magnum opus , the Flora of Java. Cornelis Andries Backer died on February 22, 1963 in Heemstede. He was 88 years old. The comprehensive work Flora of Java , written in English, was published posthumously in three parts (1963, 1965, 1968) . The co-author was the botanist Reinier Cornelis Bakhuizen van den Brink Junior (1911-1987). Approximately 6700 plant species are listed and described in this flora .

In 1936 his other magnum opus was published: Verklarend woordenboek der wetenschappelijke namen van de in Nederland en Nederlandsch Indië in het wild groeiende en in tuinen en parken gekwekte varens en hoogere planten. It explains all the scientific names of the plants of the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. The value of this work is that he has researched or verified all of the information himself. It is a very comprehensive source for any research into name explanations.

Orchid Ceratostylis backeri . Habitat : Central and West Java - at 1500 to 2500m altitude - grows as an epiphyte on small trees.
Ceratostylis backeri
Ceratostylis backeri

Honors

Honorary doctorate

In 1936, gave Utrecht University on the recommendation of the professors Victor Jacob Koning Berger and August Adriaan Pulle at Backer award honorary doctorate for outstanding achievements in studying botany. The honorary doctorate was awarded during the tricentenary of the university.

Plant species named after Backer

In 1943 the plant genus Backeria from the Black Mouth Family ( Melastomataceae ) was named after Backer by the Dutch botanist Reinier Cornelis Bakhuizen van den Brink Junior (1911-1987).

The following plant species are named after Backer (specific epithet : backeri ):

Writings and works

  • 1907: Flora van Batavia. Batavia, G. Kolff.
  • 1908: Voorlooper eener schoolflora voor Java. Batavia, Departement van Landbouw, G. Kolff.
  • 1909: De flora van het eiland Krakatau. In: De opneming van de Krakatau-Groep in May 1908. Jaarverslag van den Topographischen Dienst in Nederlandsch-Indie over 1908. 4: 189–191.
  • 1911: Schoolflora voor Java (co-author: Dirk Fok van Slooten), Weltevreden, Visser & Co.
  • 1912: Aanteekenboekje voor het plantkundig onderwijs in de lagere klassen van middelbare scholen (co-author: AJ Koens), Weltevreden, Visser & Co.
  • 1912: Sawah planten, De Tropische Natuur 1: 129-135.
  • 1913: Kritiek op de Exkursionsflora von Java (edited by Dr. SH Koorders). Weltevreden, Visser & Co.
  • 1913: Sawah planten, De Tropische Natuur 2: 74-76, 81-85, 118-122, 132-133.
  • 1914: Sawah planten, De Tropische Natuur 3: 55-62.
  • 1917-1922: Indische duinplanten, De Tropische Natuur 6: 73-78, 89-92, 97-100, 145-147; 7: 5-11, 55-59; 8: 6-10; 9: 173-191; 10: 12-17; 11: 131-140; 12: 17-22.
  • 1924: Geïllustreerd handbook of the Javaansche theeonkruiden en hunne betekenis voor de cultuur (co-author: Dirk Fok van Slooten), Batavia, Ruygrok.
  • 1924–1928: Handboek voor de flora van Java (3 volumes), Batavia, Ruygrok.
  • 1928–1934: Oncruid flora of the Java Suikerrietgronden. Pasoeroean, Proefstation voor de Java-Suikerindustrie.
  • 1929: The problem of Krakatao as seen by a botanist. Weltevreden, Visser & Co., 's-Gravenhage, Martinus Nijhoff.
  • 1936: Declaring woordenboek the wetenschappelijke names van de in Nederland en Nederlandsch Indië in het wild groeiende en in tuinen en parken gekwekte varens en hoogere planten. Groningen, P. Noordhoff NV, Batavia, Noordhoff-Kolff.
  • 1931: De habenende sterilisatie van Krakatau in 1883, Vakblad voor Biologen XII: 157–162.
  • 1936: Verwideringscentra op Java van uitheemsche planten, De Tropische Natuur 25: 51-60.
  • 1939: Varenflora voor Java: overzicht der op Java voorkomende varens en varenachtigen, hare verspreiding, oekologie en toepassingen (co-author: O. Posthumus), Buitenzorg, 's Lands Plantentuin.
  • 1940–1948: Knopte flora van Java (7 volumes), (nooduitgave), Leiden, Rijksherbarium.
  • 1951: Sonneratiaceae (co-author: Cornelis van Steenis ), Flora Malesiana 74: 280-289.
  • 1949: Dutch-English taxonomic-botanical vocabulary. Leiden, Rijksherbarium & Flora Malesiana.
  • 1963-1965-1968: Posthumous . Flora of Java (3 volumes), (co-author: Reinier Cornelis Bakhuizen van den Brink Junior), Groningen, Noordhoff.
  • 1973: Posthumous. Atlas of 220 Weeds of Sugar-cane Fields in Java. Deventer, Ysel Press.
  • 2000: new edition. To clarify, the wetenschappelijke names van de in Nederland en Nederlandsch Indië in het wild groeiende en in tuinen en parken gekwekte varens en hoogere planned. Amsterdam / Antwerp, LJ Veen.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ CA Backer: De flora van het eiland Krakatau. In: De opneming van de Krakatau-Groep in May 1908 (= Jaarverslag van den Topographischen dienst in Nederlandsch-Indie over 1908. 4). 1909, pp. 189-191.
  2. ↑ A. Ernst: The new flora of the volcanic island Krakatau. In: Vierteljahrschrift d. Naturf. Ges. In Zurich. Year 52, 1907, pp. 289-363.
  3. ^ CA Backer: The problem of Krakatao as seen by a botanist. Visser & Co., Martinus Nijhoff, Weltevreden / 's-Gravenhage 1929.
  4. ↑ CA Backer: De avoiding sterilization van Krakatau in 1883. In: Vakblad voor Biologen XII, 1931, pp. 157-162.
  5. ^ S. Winchester: Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883. Harper Collins, New York 2003, pp. 209-316.
  6. ↑ J. Martí, G. Ernst. Volcanoes and the Environment. In: Nature. 2005, pp. 256-259.
  7. ^ M. Treub: Notice sur la nouvelle flore de Krakatau. In: Annales du Jardin Botanique de Buitenzorg. 7. 1888, pp. 213-223.
  8. ^ RDM Verbeek: Krakatau. Landsdrukkerij, Batavia 1885.
  9. ^ M. Treub: About het nieuwe Plantenkleed van Krakatau. In: Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indië. Volume 48, 1889.
  10. ^ I. Thornton: Krakatau, the destruction and reassembly of an island ecosystem. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.), London 1996.
  11. ^ S. Leefmans: Bij het vertrek van CA Backer uit Indie. In: De Tropische Natuur. 20, 1931, pp. 77-78.
  12. ↑ Flora of Java in Leiden. In: Nieuwe Leidsche Courant. 10 May 1962, p. 13 ( suffering.courant.nu ).
  13. ↑ Walter Erhardt among others: The great pikeperch. Encyclopedia of Plant Names . Volume 2. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2008. ISBN 978-3-8001-5406-7
  14. ^ A. van Leer: CA Backer, Doctor honoris causa. Msc. (= Archives NHN. Leiden) 1936.
  15. ↑ CGGJ van Steenis: CA Backer, Doctor honoris causa. In: De Tropische Natuur 25, 1936, pp. 89-90.
  16. ↑ Umberto Quattrocchi: CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: Common Names, Scientific Names, Eponyms, Synonyms, and Etymology . CRC Press, Boca Raton 1999, ISBN 0-8493-2675-3 , pp. 249 f . ( books.google.com ).
  17. ↑ 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 .
personal data
SURNAME Backer, Cornelis Andries
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch botanist
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Oudenbosch
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1963
Place of death Heemstede