John Miers (botanist)
John Miers ( born August 25, 1789 in London, † October 17, 1879 ) was a British botanist and civil engineer. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Miers ".
Life
Miers was born the son of a jeweler originally from Yorkshire to London. Already as a teenager he worked with in his father's business, he spent his scant free time with the sciences and gaining their knowledge especially in mineralogy and chemistry. His first work ( on nitrogen), he published in 1814 in the Annals of Philosophy.
In 1818 he married. His wife was about 7 years younger than him and whose first name was Annie (or Queenie, her first name is not fully secured ). Immediately afterwards he was chosen for its mineralogical knowledge of Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald invited to a business undertaking to Chile, where he should help you to explore the mineral resources of the country, particularly copper and develop. In May 1819 Miers, equipped with his wife and with necessary heavy equipment came on the trip. After he had sailed to Buenos Aires, he traveled across the Pampas and the Cordilleras into the mine area, his wife became seriously ill while traveling on puerperal fever. Then Miers decided on site for a business investment, because he kept the funding for unprofitable. This decision should prove to be a wrong decision, only a few decades later covered Chilean copper large parts of the world market from.
Instead, Miers turned to the local flora, which was still poorly understood at this time. In 1825 he returned to London, in the baggage his work " Travels in Chile and La Plata ". Its publication in two volumes in 1826 made him with a blow to the leading authority on the geography and culture of the region.
Late twenties Miers received by the Argentine government the contract to supply the Mint in Buenos Aires with machines and assemble them. In order to bring his family to him, he crossed the continent twice and collected during the intensive, especially in the Pampas. However, to 1831, these enterprises were dashed due to political instability and Miers moved to Rio de Janeiro, where had been offered by the Brazilian government to him a similar contract. Again, he collected numerous plants, regardless professionally probably difficult circumstances.
1838 moved Miers then from the business back and left South America to London, where he completely devoted himself to editing his collection, which now included more than 25,000 pieces. He has published extensively in magazines, many of his publications have appeared a second time collected in book form, provided with lithographs from his own hand.
Almost 90 years old, died Miers on October 17, 1879 in his home in Kensington. He had a daughter and two sons, one of whom followed in his footsteps as a civil engineer in South America, one of his grandsons was Henry Alexander Miers, Professor of Mineralogy at Oxford.
Reception
As his most important work is considered the third volume of his Contributions to the Botany of South America, a monograph on the family of Menispermaceae.
Miers numerous publications as a pioneer of a little-known flora made him regardless of his autodidactic training into a respected figure of the science of his time. He was a member of numerous scientific societies in the Botanical Society of London, he held more than a decade the position of vice president.
However, many of Miers ' work suffer its distinct taxonomic weaknesses. Allen speaks in this context of Miers "poor judgment as a classifier" and continues the numerous, now no longer recognized taxa his descriptions. Nevertheless, his work has remained important, still too many of his descriptions are recognized today. Maas et al. especially appreciate its collections and studies mykotropher plants. In his honor, three genera were named: Miersiella, Miersia and Miersophyton.
Works
- Travels in Chile and La Plata, 2 volumes, 1826
- Illustrations of South American Botany, 2 vols, 1850-57
- Contributions to the Botany of South America, 3 vols, 1867-71
Evidence
- DE Allen: Miers, John (1789-1879), in: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, online, access on 11 October 2007