Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher
Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher
Born	24 June 1804 Pressburg
Died	28 March 1849 Vienna
Nationality	Austrian
Fields	botany

Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher (24 June 1804 – 28 March 1849) was an Austrian botanist, numismatist and Sinologist. He was a director of the Botanical Garden of Vienna. He was born in Pressburg (Bratislava) and died in Vienna.

Endlicher studied theology and received minor orders. In 1828 he was appointed to the Austrian national library to reorganize its manuscript collection. Concurrently he studied Natural History, in particular botany, and East-Asian languages. He wrote the fundamentals of Chinese grammar.

In 1840 Endlicher became professor at and director of the Botanical Garden of Vienna. He wrote a comprehensive description of the Plant Kingdom according to a natural system, at the time its most comprehensive description. As proposed by Endlicher, it contained images with text. It was published together with the reissue of Franz Unger's "Grundzüge der Botanik" (Fundamentals of Botany).

Endlicher was fundamental in establishing the Imperial Academy of Science (Akademie der Wissenschaften), but when contrary to his expectations the Baron Joseph Hammer von Purgstall was elected its president in his stead, he resigned in a tiff.

As a known liberal, Endlicher was asked to act as mediator during the revolution of 1848, but eventually was forced to leave Vienna for a time. In 1848 he also became a member of the Frankfurt Parliament and the assembly at Kremsier (Kroměříž).

Endlicher established the botanical journal Annalen des Wiener Museums der Naturgeschichte (1835 and on). He began the work Flora Brasiliensis with Martius. He also published early works on the flora of Australia, including the plants collected by Carl von Hugel.^[1]

Endlicher described many new plant genera, perhaps most notably the genus Sequoia. The genus Endlicheria of the family Lauraceae was named in his honour. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Endl. when citing a botanical name.^[2]

[edit] Important works

• Flora Brasiliensis
• Genera Plantarum Secundum Ordines Naturales Disposita (1836-50)
• Synopsis Coniferarum (1847
• Enumeratio plantarum quas in Novae Hollandiae ora austro-occidentali ad fluvium Cygnorum et in sinu Regis Georgii collegit Carolus Liber Baro de Hügel

[edit] References

1. ^ "Endlicher, Stephan L. (1804 - 1849)". Collectors & Illustrators. Australian National Herbarium. 13 November, 2007. http://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/endlicher-stephan.html. Retrieved 2008-10-20. 
2. ^ Brummitt, R. K.; C. E. Powell (1992). Authors of Plant Names. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ISBN 1-84246-085-4. 

[edit] External links

• "Stephan Endlicher". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05421a.htm. 
• View digitized titles by Endlicher in Botanicus.org
• Comprehensive bibliography on WorldCat