Otto Wilhelm Sonder

Otto Wilhelm Special ( born June 18, 1812 in old RST, † November 21, 1881 in Hamburg ) was a German botanist and pharmacist. His botanical author abbreviation is " Sond. ".

Special medical officer was in Hamburg. In 1846 he became an honorary doctorate from the University of Königsberg. Special was from 1860 to 1865 together with William Henry Harvey editor of the Flora capensis.

Life

Special occurred in 1828 as an apprentice pharmacist in the Biber'sche Officin in Hamburg, which he left after completing apprenticeship in 1832. In southern German pharmacies he went through the necessary work experience before in Berlin he obtained in 1835 the pharmaceutical state exam. The fact that his preference was for botany, showing his first floristic embossed work on the genus Salix ( willow). He became acquainted with the Berlin botanist Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link Through them, the special would like to be kept in Berlin. However, this was followed by his father's instruction, to undergo a Holstein in Kiel there alone valid state examination as a pharmacist.

Financed by the father entered a special botanical expedition in the Alps and in the countries around the Mediterranean. This special collected extensive herbarium material, its processing it immediately took attack in Hamburg. The work stopped when he should take a pharmacy in Hamburg. For this purpose, a third state examination was required. Special to the pharmacy, which he led until a few years before his death bought. His leisure hours devoted special botany and his publications. Through his work in the field of systematic botany he quickly gained a scientific meaning in the German language area. The philosophical faculty of the University of Königsberg conferred on him in May 1846, an honorary doctorate. In Hamburg polity as a director of pharmaceutischen educational institution and the title of Medicinal Raths as a member of the Medicinal Collegium of great prestige and influence, he gathered through his personal amiability a large circle of friends around. He died without prolonged illness, as a result of an acute heart condition.

Theses

With the floristic exploration of Hamburg and its surroundings special began during his apprenticeship. After 20 years of extensive work he published in 1851 the "Flora Hamburgensis ". He treats both the wild in Hamburg, as well as the more common cultivated plants. He recorded 1106 species from 444 genera. In addition to the preparations for the Hamburg Flora employed special studies of individual plants and Pf1anzengruppen, the results of which he laid down in journals. Thus, in the Botanical newspaper in 1844 published a description of " Cuscuta hassiaca Pfeiffer ," 1845 processing of Preiss in New Holland (Australia) collected new forms of algae, also in the 19th band of the Linnaea an enumeration of the orchids from the rich plant material in the thirties Christian Friedrich Ecklon and Carl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher had collected in South Africa and 1846 as an imprint of the first volume of the Transactions of the science club in Hamburg a " revision of the Heliophileen " (see Asteraceae).

Special increasingly turned to the machining of exotic plant groups, because as a diligent and well-known collector, many botanists of expeditions sent him material. This subheading covers the processing of a number of families of the " Plantae Regnellianae ", published in Linnaea from 1849, to "Contributions to the flora of South Africa," which appeared in the Linnaea 1850. 1852 published the special algae and lichens of the " Plantae Wagnerianae Columbicae " and finally in 1857 an article in the "Flora" on the Santalaceae from the Ecklon - Zeyher'schen collection. The thoroughness of this work prompted the Dublin Professor William Henry Harvey, Special to the workforce at the intended publication of a "Flora Capensis " to move, for the English author had in 1838 developed a list of occurring at the Cape of Good Hope plant genera. From the large -scale work, the difficulty was from one of the plant richest areas in the world in coping with very many Pf1anzenformen, are of the intended five volumes, unfortunately, only three ( "Flora Capensis, being a systematic of the Cape Colony, Cafraria and Port Natal " ) published since Harvey died during the publication of 1866. The first volume, 1859-1860, contains the Ranunculaceae to Connaraceae, the second 1861-1862, the Leguminosae ( legumes ) to Loranthaceae and the third, from 1864 to 1865, the Rubiaceae to Campanulaceae.

Special helped his friend from Kiel days, Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, with the publication of the " Plantae Muellerianae ", for which he edited the Epacrideen and algae ( Linnaea 1853 and 1856). Algae occurred increasingly in the forefront of the special 's works. He wrote " The algae of tropical Australia ", which appeared as a reprint from the reports of the Hamburg scientific association in 1871 in quarto format, with the addition of six panels in pressure. The large number of new species described here is evidence of the exact acquaintance of the author with this group of plants and both this fact and the richness of the special 's herbarium of lower plants, caused that, where it is always these were Determination of non-European forms of algae, special always Submitted center was. Consequently, he also worked on the journey results of the unfortunate Karl Klaus von der Decken, whose publication in 1879.

Herbarium

Otto Wilhelm special wore as a pharmacist and avid botanist to his death along a private herbarium that over 300,000 documents included. It was formed by the purchase in 1883, the basis for the non- Australian evidence of Nationalherbariums of Victoria, Australia, in Melbourne. Special planned his own lifetime, the herbarium, which he himself could not manage to sell to his friend Ferdinand von Mueller. After this had in 1870 received three boxes of herbarium specimens as a gift, however, Müller took 24 years to convince the government of Victoria by the need of purchasing the entire herbarium. Meanwhile, a number of South African documents had been sold to the herbarium of the Swedish Museum of Natural History and Australian evidence to the French botanist Jean Michel Gandoger. However the going to Melbourne collection of about 300,000 documents was so extensive that a new crop had to be built for the Botanical Museum in Melbourne. The still not fully assembled collection includes all groups of plants from all over the world. It is particularly rich in Pflenzenbelegen from tropical South America, South Africa and India, including thousands of type specimens.

Seaweed

Among the documents are algae, except for the special self- collected, important evidence from Carl Adolph Agardh and William Henry Harvey.

Higher plants

Of particular interest are plants that have been described in Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius ' Flora Brasiliensis, Myrtaceae, the Otto Karl Berg and edited by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, JWK Moritz, AF Regnell, Friedrich Sello, JF Widgren and Maximilian Alexander Philipp Prinz zu Wied - Neuwied were collected. Parts of originating from Hamburg Herbarium of JGC Lehmann, including the Boraginaceae are also in stock, as collections of Christian Friedrich Ecklon, Gueinzius Wilhelm and Carl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher from South Africa. Among the documents of the Ericaceae are type specimens of Johann Christoph Wendland and Carl Peter Thunberg.

Honors

In addition to the honorary doctorate was given the special honor that bolus called the genus of the family Aizoaceae Ottosonderia after him.

Writings

• Contributions to the flora of S. Africa. In 1850.
• Flora Hamburgensis: Description of phanerogamischen plants which grow wild in the environs of Hamburg and are often cultivated. Robert Kittler, Hamburg 1851.
• The algae of tropical Australia. In 1871.
• William Henry Harvey, Otto Wilhelm Sonder, William T. Thiselton - Dyer: Flora capensis: being a systematic description of the plants of the Cape colony, Caffraria, & Port Natal ( and Neighbouring territories ). V. 1-7, L. Reeve, Kent etc. 1894 -.