Johann Jacob Dillenius

Johann Jacob Dillen ( Dillenius ) ( born December 22, 1684 Darmstadt, † April 2, 1747 in Oxford ) was a German botanist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " dill. ".

Life

The son of a doctor studied medicine at the University of Giessen and in 1719 received his doctorate. In the same year he published an extensive flora of casting in which he (like Heinrich Bernhard Rupp in his Flora of Jena) also dealt with the cryptogams in addition to the phanerogamous plants. He described not only numerous new species, but also sought, especially in the mushrooms to the delimitation of genera, several of which have been adopted by Linnaeus.

Of the 200 species of moss, the aufführte Dillenius in his Flora of casting, 140 were not known until then. 90 Of the 160 fungal species were new.

In 1713 Dillenius was elected a member of the Leopoldina. In 1721 he accepted an invitation of the botanist William Sherard to England, where he worked on, among others, with the extensive plant collections of his host. With Sherard Dillenius also undertook extended trips through West England and Wales.

Sherard, who died 1728, had bequeathed his collection of plants, including a library, and a considerable sum of money for the establishment of a botanical chair at the University of Oxford. Dillenius was appointed the first professor for life on this post.

Dillenius stood with his famous contemporaries Albrecht von Haller and Carl Linnaeus in active scientific traffic.

Ehrentaxion

Carl Linnaeus named in his honor, the genus of the plant family Dillenia Dilleniaceae.

Works

  • Catalogus plantarum sponte circa Gissam nascentium ( 1719)
  • Hortus Elthamensis (1732, 2 vols with 324 copper plates )
  • Historia muscorum (1741, with 85 copper plates )

The latter is considered Dillenius masterpiece, the first time contains more detailed descriptions of mosses.

Swell

  • Helmut Dolezal: Dillenius, Johann Jacob. In: New German Biography ( NDB ). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2, p 718 ( digitized ).
  • Karl Mägdefrau: History of botany. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-437-20489-0.
  • Ilse Jahn: history of biology. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg / Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-827-41023-1.
  • Meyers encyclopedia. 1888-1889
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