Simon Schwendener

Simon Schwendenerstrasse ( born February 10, 1829 in Buchs, Canton of St. Gallen / Switzerland, † May 27, 1919 in Berlin) was a Swiss botanist and university professor. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " swidden "..

Life and work

Schwendenerstrasse grew up on a farm and this should take. According to his inclinations, he first attended the teacher training college in St. Gallen, where he took his degree in 1847 and became then a teacher at the high school in Wädenswil. Then he studied from 1849 to 1850 Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the Academy in Geneva.

A small inheritance enabled him to study at the University of Zurich, where he was in 1856 summa cum laude doctorate to the Dr. phil.

From 1857 he worked as an assistant to Carl Wilhelm von Naegeli, then from 1860 worked as a lecturer in botany at the University of Munich. In 1867 he is Professor of Botany and Director of the Botanical Gardens in Basel. After a year as Professor of Botany and successor of Wilhelm Hofmeister at the University of Tübingen Schwendenerstrasse worked from 1878 until his retirement in 1910 as Professor of Botany at the University of Berlin.

Research

After graduation, he began under the direction of Carl Wilhelm von Naegeli with his studies for the construction of the lichen. He was able to show that Lichens are dual organisms that consist of fungi and algae. With this realization, he met with fierce resistance of the former Lichenologen. The Finnish botanist William Nylander spoke of a " stultitia Schwendeneriana " ( a " schwenderianischen stupidity "). However, further studies could prove important botanist Schwendeners symbiosis - view.

Schwendenerstrasse also hired studies on the mechanical laws in the construction and development of higher plants, in particular the arrangement of the plant Supporting Tissues. Schwendenerstrasse assumed that the structure and function of plant tissue consolidation with the fact that ultimately, that is, the construction of the fabric must follow the principles of mechanics. He writes: " ... what I have in mind is a ... anatomical and physiological examination of all tissue systems, which ... which although impressive, but dead in itself building but teaching of anatomy by clarifying the relationships between structure and function would supplement and revitalize. "Even with this view, he came complete lack of understanding of some of his fellow guild.

He occupied himself in his studies, especially with issues such as the construction of the leaf joints, the juice Rose in the plant and the leaf position. Next he could show how the characteristic wall thickening of the guard cells are in close relationship to the function of the stomata. Schwendeners investigation results over the moving mechanism of the stomata ( Amaryllidaceae, Gramineae type) are still to be found in schools and textbooks of botany.

As a university teacher Schwendenerstrasse had numerous pupils and assistants, even in the scientific botany gained fame later, among others: Hermann Ambronn, Carl Correns, Gottlieb Haberlandt ( his successor at the Berlin Chair ), Emil Heinricher, Richard Kolkwitz, Ernst Küster, Kurt Noack, William Ruhland, Henry Schenck, William Tschirch (1818-1892), Alfred origin, Georg Volkens, Otto Warburg and Max Westermaier (first holder of the Chair of Botany at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland).

Writings (selection )

(1856 ): Concerning the periodic phenomena of nature, especially the plant world: according to the Swiss from the general society prompted for the whole science observations.
(1867 ): The microscope: theory and application thereof. Carl Wilhelm von Naegeli
(1869 ): The algae types of Flechtengoniden.
(1872 ): The history of cultivated plants.
(1874 ): The mechanical principle of the anatomical structure of the monocots.
(1878 ): Mechanical theory of the leaf positions.
(1881 ): About spiral positions at Florideae.
(1881 ): On the growth caused by displacement of very small particles in trajectorischen curves.
(1882 ): About the construction and mechanics of the stomata.
(1882 ): About the winds of the plants.
(1882 ): About the Scheitelwachsthum the Phanerogam roots.
(1883 ): The protective sheaths and their gains ..
(1883 ): On the theory of the leaf positions.
(1885 ): Some observations on latex vessels.
(1885 ): About Scheitelwachsthum and leaf positions.
(1886 ): Studies on the ascent of sap.
(1889 ): The stomata of the Gramineae and Cyperaceae.
(1892 ): Studies on the Orientirungstorsionen of leaves and flowers.
(1896 ): The water tissue in the pulvinus of Marantaceae.
(1899 ): About the opening mechanism of the anthers.

Buchs, St. Gallen Emil Johann Lambert Heinricher Heinrich Schenck Neue Deutsche Biographie International Plant Names Index Integrated Authority File

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