- Erik Acharius
Erik Acharius (
10 October 1757 –14 August 1819 ) was a Swedishbotanist who pioneered the taxonomy oflichen s and is known as the "father oflichenology ".Acharius was born in
Gävle , matriculated atUppsala University in 1773 and was one of the last of the students of Linnaeus. He later worked for the Royal Academy of Sciences inStockholm and completed his medical studies atLund University in 1782. He was appointed town medical officer inVadstena in 1785, district medical officer inÖstergötland County in 1789, director of the newVadstena Hospital (which he had initiated) in 1795, and titular professor in 1803.Acharius belonged to the younger generations of Swedish botanists who continued what Linnaeus had left undone. Acharius began the taxonomic classification of the "
Lichenes " and published several work in this field: "Lichenographiae Suecia prodromus" (1798), "Methodus lichenum" (1803), "Lichenographia universalis" (1810), "Synopsis methodica lichenum" (1814) and many smaller papers in periodicals.He was a member of the
Royal Physiographic Society in Lund (1795), theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1796), theLinnean Society of London (1801) and theRoyal Society of Sciences in Uppsala (1810).The genus "
Acharia ", several plants, such as "Rosa acharii " and "Conferva acharii " and one insect, "Tortrix achariana " have been named after Acharius.The collections of Acharius are distributed over several
museum s: theFinnish Museum of Natural History inHelsinki , theBotanical Museum in Uppsala , theSwedish Museum of Natural History and theBotanical Museum in Lund . His papers are in the Library of Uppsala University.References
*"
Nordisk familjebok ", vol. 1 (1904), col [http://runeberg.org/nfba/0060.html 96]
*Monika Myrdal: "Erik Acharius, the father of lichenology", at [http://linnaeus.nrm.se/botany/kbo/ach/acharius.html.en] , the website of the Swedish Museum of Natural History. With links to sample images of his publications.
*Rutger Sernander: "Acharius, Erik", "Svenskt biografiskt lexikon", vol. 1, pp. 37-40.Further reading
* cite encyclopedia
last = Eriksson
first = Gunnar
title = Acharius, Erik
encyclopedia =Dictionary of Scientific Biography
volume = 1
pages = 45-46
publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons
location = New York
date = 1970
isbn = 0684101149
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