Ernst Meyer (botanist)

Ernst Heinrich Friedrich Meyer (born January 1, 1791 in Hanover , Lower Saxony ; † August 7, 1858 in Königsberg , East Prussia ) was a German botanist and director of the Botanical Garden in Königsberg. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " E.Mey. "

Life

With the interruptions of the Wars of Liberation, Ernst Meyer studied medicine at the University of Göttingen , where he also completed his habilitation. During his years as a private lecturer at the University of Göttingen, Meyer met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , who was staying in Göttingen and was very interested in botanicals. Meyer had previously indicated his agreement with Goethe's doctrine of metamorphosis in a book review in the Göttingische Schehrten advertisements . A lively correspondence developed, which continued even after Meyer was already a professor at the University of Königsberg . This ultimately led to Meyer appearing as a collaborator in two of Goethe's works: He responded to a problem posed by Goethe and provided material on the effect of the doctrine of metamorphosis.

In 1821 Meyer was elected a member of the Leopoldina . In 1826 Meyer was appointed as an associate professor in Königsberg, where he became a full professor in 1829. There he met the German-American August Fendler (1813-1883) in 1841 , whom he commissioned to collect plants in the western United States . As is known from Fendler's letters, the majority of his plant deliveries to Königsberg remained unpaid. In 1856 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg .

Honors

The succulent " Brachystelma meyerianum " in the South African Cape Province and the plant species Eriochloa meyerianum are named after him. The plant genera Ernestia DC. from the family of the black mouth plants (Melastomataceae) and Ernestimeyera Kuntze from the family of the red plants (Rubiaceae) are named after him. The plant genus Meyeria DC. from the sunflower family (Asteraceae) is named after Carl Anton von Meyer , Johann Carl Friedrich Meyer , Friedrich Albrecht Anton Meyer , Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer and Ernst Heinrich Friedrich Meyer.

Fonts (selection)

Synopsis Juncorum . 1822.
Synopsis Lucularum . 1823.
De plantis labradoricis . 1830.
Commentatorium de plantis Africae australioris… (1836–1838).
Prussia's plant genera . 1839.
Nicolai Damasceni De plantis libri duo . 1841.
History of botany . Bornträger Verlag, Königsberg 1854–1857. - Translation with a foreword by Frans Verdoorn: Verlag A. Asher, Amsterdam 1965.
as edited by Carl Jessen : Alberti Magni 'De vegetabilibus libri VII'. Berlin 1867.

literature

Gustav Zaddach : Ernst Meyer as a scholar and poet , public lecture, given in Königsberg on February 22, 1879. In: Old Prussian Monthly , Volume 33, 1896, p. 36 f.
H. Lorenzen: Ernst Heinrich Friedrich Meyer (1791-1858) . In: The Albertus University of Königsberg and its professors , ed. On the occasion of the founding of the Albertus University 450 years ago. by Dietrich Rauschning u. Donata von Nerée, published in the series: Yearbook of the Albertus University in Königsberg / Pr. , Volume XXIX (1994), Duncker & Humblot Verlag, Berlin 1995, p. 577 f.
Ernst Wunschmann: Meyer, Ernst . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 565-569.

Web links

Wikisource: Ernst Meyer (Botaniker) - Sources and full texts

Literature by and about Ernst Meyer in the catalog of the German National Library
Works by and about Ernst Meyer in the German Digital Library
Short biography. (Norwegian)
Author entry and list of the described plant names for Ernst Meyer (botanist) at the IPNI
History of botany . books.google.com

Individual evidence

^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Ernst Heinrich Friedrich Meyer. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed October 5, 2015 .
↑ ^a ^b Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymic 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 .
↑ Robert Zander : Zander hand dictionary of plant names . Ed .: Fritz Encke , Günther Buchheim, Siegmund Seybold . 13th, revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8001-5042-5 .

personal data
SURNAME	Meyer, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Meyer, Ernst Heinrich Friedrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German botanist
DATE OF BIRTH	January 1, 1791
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hanover , Lower Saxony
DATE OF DEATH	August 7, 1858
Place of death	Koenigsberg , East Prussia

[1] Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Ernst Heinrich Friedrich Meyer. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed October 5, 2015 .

[Burkhardt_2018-2] Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymic 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 .

[3] Robert Zander : Zander hand dictionary of plant names . Ed .: Fritz Encke , Günther Buchheim, Siegmund Seybold . 13th, revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8001-5042-5 .