Ferdinand Albin Pax

Ferdinand Albin Pax ( born July 26, 1858 in Koniginhof, Bohemia, † March 1, 1942 in Breslau) was a German botanist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Pax ". He is the father of the zoologists Ferdinand Albert Pax ( 1885-1964 ).

Pax studied at the University of Breslau, where he earned his doctorate at Heinrich Goeppert 1882. In 1883 he became assistant to Adolf Engler at the University of Kiel. This he followed in the same year at the University of Breslau, where he habilitated in 1886. From 1889 to 1893 he was curator of the Botanical Garden in Berlin, then to 1926, professor of botany at the University of Breslau and director of the Botanical Garden of Wroclaw. For the 1st and 2nd edition of the standard work The natural plant families of Engler and Prantl, he worked several plant families; together with Käthe Hoffmann, these were for the 2nd edition of Amaryllidaceae (1930 ), Euphorbiaceae, Callitrichaceae (1931 ), Aizoaceae, Portulaceae, Dysphaniaceae, Caryophyllaceae (1934 ) and Capparidaceae, Tovariaceae (1936). Also the work The earth's vegetation of Engler and Drude he contributed parts, as to the plant kingdom (1902 ) by Engler. The plant genus Paxia Gilg ( Connaraceae, today Rourea ) has been named after him.

Between 1923 and 1926, Pax was president of the Silesian Society for patriotic culture.

Works (selection)

• Monographic Overview of the species of the genus Primula, 1888
• General morphology of plants with special reference to Blüthenmorphologie, 1890
• Broad distribution of plants in the Carpathians Volume I, 1898
• Broad distribution of plants in the Carpathians Volume II, 1908
• Silesia plant world, 1915
• Plant Geography of Romania, 1919