Carl Anton von Meyer (in Russian: Карл Анто́нович фон Ме́йер, ''Karl Antonovich von Meyer'') (1 April 1795 – 24 February 1855) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Russified Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...

botanist and

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

. Meyer was born in

Vitebsk Vitebsk or Viciebsk (russian: Витебск, ; be, Ві́цебск, ; , ''Vitebsk'', lt, Vitebskas, pl, Witebsk), is a city in Belarus. The capital of the Vitebsk Region, it has 366,299 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-largest c ...

. He received his education at the

University of Dorpat The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

(1813-14) as a student of Karl Friedrich von Ledebour, with whom he later embarked on a scientific journey to the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

(1818). In 1826, with Ledebour and

Alexander G. von Bunge Alexander Georg von Bunge (russian: Алекса́ндр Андре́евич Бу́нге; – ) was a Russian botanist. He is best remembered for scientific expeditions into Asia and especially Siberia. Early life and education Bunge was b ...

, he took part in an expedition to the

Altay Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob have their headwaters. The massif merges with the ...

and the Kirghiz Steppe (

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

). Plants collected on the trip formed the basis of "Flora Altaica" (four volumes issued between 1829 and 1833).JSTOR
Global Plants JSTOR Global Plants] (biography) In 1835 he began work as a botanist for the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, where he conducted research with Friedrich Ernst Ludwig von Fischer. In 1844 he succeeded

Carl Bernhard von Trinius Carl Bernhard von Trinius (6 March 1778, Eisleben – 12 March 1844, St. Petersburg) was a German-born botanist and physician. He studied medicine at several universities, earning his medical doctorate at the University of Göttingen in 1802. ...

as director of the academy's botanical museum, and in 1850 replaced Fischer as head of the imperial botanical garden. Meyer was the only botanist to have held both positions, being in charge of the garden and museum simultaneously until his death in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

in 1855.

Publications

Among his written works were treatises on the plant families

Cruciferae Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The leav ...

and

Polygonaceae The Polygonaceae are a family of flowering plants known informally as the knotweed family or smartweed—buckwheat family in the United States. The name is based on the genus '' Polygonum'', and was first used by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1 ...

. The following are a few of his principal works: * ''Enumeratio plantarum novarum a cl. Schrenk lectarum'' (with Friedrich Ernst Ludwig von Fischer), 1841–1842. * Flora Altaica; scripsit Carolus Fridericus a Ledebour, adiutoribus Car. Ant. Meyer et Al. a Bunge. (with Karl Friedrich von Ledebour and Alexander Georg von Bunge), 1829–1833. * ''Versuch einer Monographie der Gattung Ephedra: durch Abbildungen erläutert'', 1846.Biodiversity Heritage Library
(bibliography)

References

19th-century botanists from the Russian Empire German taxonomists 1795 births 1855 deaths German explorers Explorers from the Russian Empire Russian people of German descent 19th-century explorers 19th-century German botanists {{Russia-botanist-stub

Publications

See also

References