Hugh Algernon Weddell

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Portrait of Hugh Algernon Weddell
"Vallée de San Juan del Oro", illustration by J. Denis from the work Histoire Naturelle des quinquinas, ou monographie du genre Cinchona (1849) by Hugh Algernon Weddell

Hugh Algernon Weddell (born June 22, 1819 in Birches House near Painswick , † July 22, 1877 in Poitiers , France) was a British doctor and botanist who specialized in the study of the South American flora. Its botanical author abbreviation is “ Wedd. "

Live and act

Weddell was born in Birches House near Gloucester and grew up in France. He completed a medical degree at the Lycée Henri IV and at the Hôpital Cochin , where he graduated in 1841. He also studied botany and accompanied Adrien Henri Laurent de Jussieu (1797–1853) on numerous botanical expeditions. In 1845 he is named alongside Ernest Saint-Charles Cosson (1819–1889) and Jacques Nicolas Ernest Germain de Saint-Pierre (1815–1882) as co-author of the standard work Flore des environs de Paris . In 1843 he accompanied François Louis Nompar de Caumont de La Force to South America, where he researched the flora and collected botanical samples until 1847.

In May 1845 Weddell left Castelnau's expedition, which was staying in Paraguay at the time , and traveled on alone to Peru and Bolivia . On behalf of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle , he carried out intensive studies on the cinchona trees ( chinchona ). The cinchona bark, from which quinine is extracted, was of great economic importance to Europeans. Weddell discovered a number of regions where the trees grew and identified no fewer than fifteen different species in the genus Cinchona ( Rubiaceae ). The seeds he sent back to Paris germinated in the Jardin des Plantes botanical gardens and the plants were used to plant cinchona bark forests in Java and elsewhere in the East Indies .

In 1847 he married Manuela Bolognesi. When he returned to Paris in March 1848, he left his wife in South America. Weddell received an assistant post as a naturalist at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle , which he held until 1853. In 1851 he made a second trip to South America. In 1872 he became a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences . Weddell died in Poitiers in July 1877 while caring for his father.

Dedication names

Several animal and plant species are named after Weddell, including the brown-headed parakeet ( Aratinga weddellii ), Aristolochia weddellii , Anadoras weddellii , Lophophytum weddellii , Ranunculus weddellii and Solanum weddellii . The plant genera Algernonia Baill are also named after him . from the family of the milkweed plants (Euphorbiaceae), Weddellina Tul. from the family Podostemaceae and the fungus genus Weddellomyces D. Hawksw.

Works (selection)

literature

  • Benoît Dayrat (2003). Les Botanistes et la Flore de France, trois siècles de découvertes. Publications scientifiques du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle: 690 pp.
  • Philippe Jaussaud & Édouard R. Brygoo (2004). Du Jardin au Muséum en 516 biographies . Muséum national d'histoire naturelle de Paris: 630 pp.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Part 1, p. XVII , 1845.
  2. ^ Letter from Mrs. Weddell to the President of the Society, June 17, 1891 . Bulletin de la société académique d'agriculture de Poitiers , No. 307, 1891, p. 163.
  3. ^ List of former members since 1666: Letter W. Académie des sciences, accessed on March 14, 2020 (French).
  4. ↑ 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

personal data
SURNAME Weddell, Hugh Algernon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British physician and botanist
DATE OF BIRTH June 22, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH Birches House at Painswick
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 1877
Place of death Poitiers , France