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Joseph Hers
Joseph Hers (1884–1965) was a Belgian railroad engineer who served from 1919 to 1924 as a botanist in northern China, where he discovered several new varieties of lilac. Some have been named after him. Career He was born in Namur, Belgium on September 6, 1884 and started working in China in 1905 as an interpreter for the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was then the Secretary General of Lunghai and Pienlo railways and he was also an assessor at the International Mixed Court in Shanghai. Hers based himself at Zhengzhou (Chengchow), the capital city of Henan. He was far from being a desk-bound bureaucrat and clearly relished the outdoor aspect of his position, exploring and surveying the route of the railway line. He was a tall, strong-looking man, as can be seen from several extant photographs, and travelled tirelessly in difficult conditions. His role in the construction of the rail line certainly would have brought him into a work-related contact with William Purdom, as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the southwest, and the North Sea to the northwest. It covers an area of and has a population of more than 11.5 million, making it the 22nd most densely populated country in the world and the 6th most densely populated country in Europe, with a density of . Belgium is part of an area known as the Low Countries, historically a somewhat larger region than the Benelux group of states, as it also included parts of northern France. The capital and largest city is Brussels; other major cities are Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi, Liège, Bruges, Namur, and Leuven. Belgium is a sovereign state and a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system. Its institutional organization is complex and is structured on both regional ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek word (''botanē'') meaning "pasture", " herbs" "grass", or " fodder"; is in turn derived from (), "to feed" or "to graze". Traditionally, botany has also included the study of fungi and algae by mycologists and phycologists respectively, with the study of these three groups of organisms remaining within the sphere of interest of the International Botanical Congress. Nowadays, botanists (in the strict sense) study approximately 410,000 species of land plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants (including approximately 369,000 species of flowering plants), and approximately 20,000 are bryophytes. Botany originated in prehistory as herbalism with the efforts of early humans to identify – and later cultivate – edible, med ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. Covering an area of approximately , it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and financial center is Shanghai. Modern Chinese trace their origins to a cradle of civilization in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. The semi-legendary Xia dynasty in the 21st century BCE and the well-attested Shang and Zhou dynasties developed a bureaucratic political system to serve hereditary monarchies, or dyna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lilac
''Syringa'' is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering plant, flowering woody plants in the olive family or Oleaceae called lilacs. These lilacs are native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and widely and commonly cultivated in temperate zone, temperate areas elsewhere.Flora Europaea''Syringa''/ref>Flora of China丁香属 ding xiang shu ''Syringa''/ref>Flora of Pakistan''Syringa''/ref>Germplasm Resources Information Network''Syringa'' The genus is most closely related to ''Ligustrum'' (privet), classified with it in Oleaceae tribus Oleeae subtribus Ligustrinae.University of Oxford, Oleaceae information siteNew classification of the Oleaceae/ref> Lilacs are used as food plants by the larvae of some moth species, including copper underwing, scalloped oak and Svensson's copper underwing. Description They are small trees, ranging in size from tall, with stems up to diameter. The leaf, leaves are opposite (occasionally in whorls o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Namur
Namur (; ; nl, Namen ; wa, Nameur) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namur stands at the confluence of the rivers Sambre and Meuse and straddles three different regions – Hesbaye to the north, Condroz to the south-east, and Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse to the south-west. The city of Charleroi is located to the west. The language spoken is French. The municipality consists of the following districts: Beez, Belgrade, Boninne, Bouge, Champion, Cognelée, Daussoulx, Dave, Erpent, Flawinne, Gelbressée, Jambes, Lives-sur-Meuse, Loyers, Malonne, Marche-les-Dames, Naninne, Saint-Servais, Saint-Marc, Suarlée, Temploux, Vedrin, Wépion, and Wierde. History Early history The town began as an important trading settlement in Celtic times, straddling east–west and north–south trade routes across the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs
The Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation (FPS Foreign Affairs) is the foreign affairs ministry of Belgium and is responsible for Belgian foreign policy, relations with the European Union, development cooperation policy and certain aspects of foreign trade policy. The central government in Brussels directs the network of diplomatic and consular representations abroad. Mission, core tasks and vision The following are the mission, core tasks and vision of the FPS Foreign Affairs. Mission The FPS Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation represents, defends and promotes the interests of Belgium and Belgians abroad, promotes the coherence of foreign action and coordinates Belgium's European policy as a federal country. The FPS Foreign Affairs strives for a safe, just and prosperous world. Core tasks The most important tasks of the FPS Foreign Affairs can be summarised as follows: * the defence of Belgium's politic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Purdom
William Purdom (10 April 1880 – 7 November 1921) was a British plant explorer. After being apprenticed as a gardener aBrathay Hallin the English Lake district, he traveled to London to work at the Hugh Low, Enfield Nursery, then onto the Veitch establishment at Coombe Wood. In 1902, Purdom took up a position as a gardener at Kew Botanic Garden soon becoming promoted to a sub-foreman (leading-hand) position. Purdom became heavily involved with early Union activities particularly promoting the rights of junior workers which eventually led to his unjustified dismissal. Despite being a bane to the, then, Kew Director, David Prain, the latter recognized the talents of William Purdom and recommended his employee as being very suitable as a plant collector for a joint venture by Veitch and the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University to the northern provinces of China in 1909. Purdom collected and photographed plants for the Arboretum, as well as the great British Nursery firm for three y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Prain
Sir David Prain (11 July 1857 – 16 March 1944) was a Scottish botanist who worked in India at the Calcutta Botanical Garden and went on to become Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Life Born to David Prain, a saddler, and his wife Mary Thomson, in Fettercairn, Scotland, in 1857, Prain attended the Fettercairn Parish School and then Aberdeen Grammar School. He then studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen, where he gained his M.A. in 1878. After teaching for two years at Ramsgate College, he returned to Aberdeen and thence to the University of Edinburgh, earning an MB ChM in 1883 with highest honours. He was demonstrator of anatomy at the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1882 and 1883, and at the University of Aberdeen in 1883 and 1884. In 1884 Prain was recommended to Sir George King (1840–1909), home on leave from his position as director of the Royal Botanic Garden at Calcutta and looking for a medical student with botanical interests to enter the Ind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its living collections include some of the 27,000 taxa curated by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, while the herbarium, one of the largest in the world, has over preserved plant and fungal specimens. The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants. It is one of London's top tourist attractions and is a World Heritage Sites, World Heritage Site. Kew Gardens, together with the botanic gardens at Wakehurst Place, Wakehurst in Sussex, are managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, an internationally important botany, botanical research and education institution that employs over 1,100 staff and is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Envir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meise Botanic Garden
The Meise Botanic Garden ( nl, Plantentuin Meise, french: Jardin botanique de Meise), until 2014 called the National Botanic Garden of Belgium ( nl, Nationale Plantentuin van België, french: Jardin Botanique National de Belgique), is a botanical garden located in the grounds of Bouchout Castle in Meise, Flemish Brabant, just north of Brussels. It is one of the world's largest botanical gardens, with an extensive collection of living plants and a herbarium of about 4 million specimens. The current garden was established in 1958 after moving from central Brussels; the former site is now the Botanical Garden of Brussels. The Meise Botanic Garden contains about 18,000 plant species—about 6% of all the world's known plant species. Half are in greenhouses, the other half, including cultivated and indigenous plants, are outdoors. The ''Index Herbariorum'' code assigned to this botanic garden is BR, which is used when citing housed specimens. The botanic garden's mission statement s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1884 Births
Events January–March * January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London. * January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's ''Princess Ida'' premières at the Savoy Theatre, London. * January 18 – Dr. William Price attempts to cremate his dead baby son, Iesu Grist, in Wales. Later tried and acquitted on the grounds that cremation is not contrary to English law, he is thus able to carry out the ceremony (the first in the United Kingdom in modern times) on March 14, setting a legal precedent. * February 1 – ''A New English Dictionary on historical principles, part 1'' (edited by James A. H. Murray), the first fascicle of what will become ''The Oxford English Dictionary'', is published in England. * February 5 – Derby County Football Club is founded in England. * March 13 – The siege of Khartoum, Sudan, begins (ends on January 26, 1885). * March 28 – Prince Leopold, the youngest son and the eighth child of Queen Victoria and Pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1965 Deaths
Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in for a full term as President of the United States. ** Indonesian President Sukarno announces the withdrawal of the Indonesian government from the United Nations. * January 30 – The state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill takes place in London with the largest assembly of dignitaries in the world until the 2005 funeral of Pope John Paul II. * February 4 – Trofim Lysenko is removed from his post as director of the Institute of Genetics at the Academy of Sciences in the Soviet Union. Lysenkoist theories are now treated as pseudoscience. * February 12 ** The African and Malagasy Common Organization ('; OCAM) is formed as successor to the Afro-Malagasy Union for Economic Cooperation ('; UAMCE), formerly the African and Malagasy Union ('; UAM ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
