Carl Niclas von Hellens (1 August 1745 – 26 January 1820) was a Finnish botanist.

Life

He was born Carl Niclas Hellenius in

Kärkölä Kärkölä () is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the Päijänne Tavastia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density ...

and studied at the

Royal Academy of Turku The Royal Academy of Turku or the Royal Academy of Åbo ( sv, Kungliga Akademin i Åbo or ; la, Regia Academia Aboensis; fi, Turun akatemia) was the first university in Finland, and the only Finnish university that was founded when the country ...

from 1764. He studied under

Pehr Kalm Pehr Kalm (6 March 1716 – 16 November 1779), also known as Peter Kalm, was a Swedish explorer, botanist, naturalist, and agricultural economist. He was one of the most important apostles of Carl Linnaeus. In 1747, he was commissioned by the R ...

and

Pehr Adrian Gadd Pehr is a predominantly Swedish language masculine give name and may refer to: *Pehr Adlerfelt (1680–1743), Swedish Army colonel *Pehr von Afzelius (1760–1843), Swedish medical doctor and professor * Pehr Victor Edman (1916—1977), Swedish bi ...

. He was named

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...

in chemistry, zoology and economics in 1773. He went to

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

in 1774 to study medicine and received a doctoral degree in medicine there in 1776. Between 1777 and 1780 he worked as a medical doctor at

Serafimerlasarettet Serafimerlasarettet (Seraphim Hospital), popularly known as ''Serafen'', was the first modern hospital in Sweden. It was located in Kungsholmen in Stockholm and active from 1752 to 1980. The current building still houses the local emergency departm ...

, Sweden's first modern hospital, in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. He subsequently returned to Finland and

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

. He remained active at the academy in the city for the remainder of his life. He was responsible for the botanical garden and increased the number of plants in its collections from a couple of hundred to over two thousand species. He was ennobled in 1816 and took the name von Hellens. The botanical genus ''

Costus ''Costus'' is a group of herbaceous perennial plants in the family Costaceae, described by Linnaeus as a genus in 1753. It was formerly known as ''Hellenia'' after the Finnish botanist Carl Niclas von Hellens. It is widespread through tropica ...

'' was formerly known as ''Hellenia'' after Carl Niclas von Hellens. He died in Turku, aged 74.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hellens, Carl Niclas von 1745 births 1820 deaths 18th-century Finnish botanists Finnish expatriates in Sweden People from Kärkölä 19th-century Finnish botanists