Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen

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Portrait of Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen

Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen (born June 28, 1804 in Tilsit , † September 2, 1840 in Berlin ) was a German physician and botanist . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Meyen ".

Life

After an apprenticeship as a pharmacist in Memel ( Lithuania ), Meyen came to Berlin in 1821, where he graduated from the university, and from 1823 to 1826 studied medicine at the University of Berlin . In 1826 he was promoted to Dr. med. PhD. Meyen then worked as a military doctor in Berlin, Cologne , Bonn and Potsdam . In 1828 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

In addition to his professional activity, he dealt extensively with botany , especially with the histology of plants. On the recommendation of Alexander von Humboldt , he took part in a circumnavigation of the world as a ship's doctor on the Princess Louise from 1830 to 1832 , which took him back to Brazil , Chile , Peru , Polynesia , China and from here to Europe with a short stay on St. Helena .

Meyen brought back extensive collections from his trip, the results of which were only published after his death. They gave him a wide- ranging knowledge of the earth's vegetation from his own experience, which was an essential basis for his book Grundriß der Pflanzengeographie , published in 1836 . In the first section of this work he deals with the dependence of vegetation on climate , in the second the effects of the soil on vegetation. In the third section, Meyen discusses the physiognomic types based on Alexander von Humboldt and describes the vegetation of the various zones and regions (including vegetation statistics). Finally, the last section is devoted to cultivated plants , their origin, distribution, cultivation and use.

Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen: About the latest advances in the anatomy and physiology of plants (1834)

In 1834 he was appointed associate professor for botany at the University of Berlin. During this time he continued his histological investigations on plants and published, among other things, a three-volume work on plant physiology. In his textbook Phytotomy , he described a cell theory before Matthias Jacob Schleiden and Theodor Schwann . He differentiated the plant organs merenchyma , parenchyma , prosenchyma and pleurenchyma according to the different shape of their cells and was also convinced that the growth of plants is solely due to cell division .

In Berlin-Lichtenberg a street is named after Julius Meyen.

Taxonomic honor

In his honor, the genus Meyenia Nees of the acanthus family (Acanthaceae) was named.

Works

  • Anatomical-physiological studies on the content of plant cells , Berlin 1828
  • Phytotomy , Berlin 1830
  • On the latest advances in the anatomy and physiology of plants. A treatise crowned by the Teyler's Society at Haarlem in 1835. Haarlem 1836
  • Plan of the plant geography with detailed studies of the fatherland, the cultivation and the use of the most excellent cultivated plants, which are the basis of the prosperity of the peoples. Berlin, Haude and Spenersche Buchhandlung. 478 pp. (1836)
  • New system of plant physiology , 3 volumes, Berlin 1837–1839
  • Journey around the world carried out on the Royal Prussian sea merchant ship Prinzess Louise, commanded by Captain W. Wendt, in the years 1830, 1831 and 1832, (probably in several volumes) Sander'schen Buchhandlung, Berlin, 1834

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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

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personal data
SURNAME Meyen, Franz Julius Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physician and botanist
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Tilsit
DATE OF DEATH September 2, 1840
Place of death Berlin