- Berthold Carl Seemann
Berthold Carl Seemann 25 February 1825
Hanover , Germany - 10 October 1871Nicaragua , Central America, was a Germanbotanist . He travelled widely and collected and described plants from thePacific andSouth America .In 1844 he travelled to the United Kingdom to studied
botany at theRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew . On the recommendation of Sir WJ Hooker, he was appointed naturalist on the voyage of exploration of the American west coast and Pacific byHenry Kellett on HMS "Herald", 1847–1851, along with the naturalistsThomas Edmondston , andJohn Goodridge . The expedition returned viaHawaii ,Hong Kong and theEast Indies , calling at theCape in March 1851. Here he met up with his old acquaintance Zeyher, and with Baur and Juritz they climbedTable Mountain on 13 March 1851, Ecklon being unwell and unable to accompany them. On 16 March Zeyher introduced him to Bowie at Wynberg. He left the Cape on 27 March and was back in England on 6 June 1851. The botanical results of the voyage were published as "Botany of the Voyage of HMS Herald" and he was awarded a Ph.D. by theUniversity of Gottingen in 1853.In 1859 he travelled to
Fiji and published a botanical catalogue of the flora of the islands. In the 1860s he visitedSouth America , travelling inVenezuela in 1864 andNicaragua from 1866 to 1867. He later managed a sugar estate inPanama and the Javali gold mine in Nicaragua, where he finally succumbed to fever.He started and edited the journal "Bonplandia" from 1853–1862 and the "
Journal of Botany, British and Foreign " from 1863–1871.The plant genus "
Seemannia " Regel. (Gesneriaceae ), "Seemannantha" Alef. and "Seemannaralia " R. Viguier (Araliaceae ) were named in his honour.
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