Johann Müller (9 May 1828 - 28 January 1896) was a Swiss botanist who was a specialist in lichens. He published under the name Johannes Müller Argoviensis to distinguish himself from other naturalists with similar names.
Biography
Müller was born into a farming family on 9 May 1828 in
Teufenthal
Teufenthal is a municipality in the district of Kulm in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland.
Geography
The street lies in the lower part of a tight, three-kilometer long side of Wyna, in an easterly direction to the plateau of Dürrenäsch. ...
, Switzerland. He received his education at the
Reinach gymnasium and then entered the
Aargau
Aargau, more formally the Canton of Aargau (german: Kanton Aargau; rm, Chantun Argovia; french: Canton d'Argovie; it, Canton Argovia), is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capita ...
industrial school, where he was passionate about botany and mathematics. Encouraged by
Hans Schinz
Hans Schinz (6 December 1858 – 30 October 1941) was a Swiss explorer and botanist who was a native of Zürich.
In 1884 he participated in an exploratory expedition to German Southwest Africa that was organized by German merchant Adolf Lüde ...
he built a herbarium of the flora of Aargau. In 1850 and 1851 he studied in Geneva and came into contact with prominent botanists
Edmond Boissier
Pierre Edmond Boissier (25 May 1810 Geneva – 25 September 1885 Valeyres-sous-Rances) was a Swiss prominent botanist, explorer and mathematician.
He was the son of Jacques Boissier (1784-1857) and Caroline Butini (1786-1836), daughter of Pier ...
and
Alphonse Pyrame de Candolle
Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (28 October 18064 April 1893) was a French-Swiss botanist, the son of the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle.
Biography
De Candolle, son of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, first devot ...
(who offered him the vacant post of curator at his herbarium).
In the spring of 1851 he collected in southern France with
Jean Étienne Duby
Jean Étienne Duby (15 February 1798 in Geneva – 24 November 1885) was a Swiss clergyman and botanist.
He studied theology in Geneva, obtaining his consecration in 1820, and having an avid interest in natural history, he earned his degree in na ...
. The herbarium specimens from this trip were later sent to several herbaria in Europe. The following year, Müller travelled with Boissier to collect plants in the Alps of Savoy, the valley of Aoste, and Piedmont.
The Swiss Society of Natural Sciences published his first work in 1857, ''Monographie de la famille des Résédacées'', for which he received the Candolle prize and earned a Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Zurich. He then published works on
Euphorbiaceae
Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, e ...
,
Characeae,
Apocynaceae
Apocynaceae (from ''Apocynum'', Greek for "dog-away") is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison Members of the ...
, mosses and fungi. His annotated catalog of lichens, published in 1862, was considered a standard work in its day.
He was appointed instructor in Geneva in 1868, in charge of teaching medical and pharmaceutical botany at the Geneva Academy from 1871. He held the chair in 1876 and retired in 1889 for health reasons. Afterwards he served as curator of the Delessert herbarium and director of the Geneva Botanical Garden until his death on 28 January 1896.
He served as president of the Botanical Society of Geneva from 1878 to 1882. He was a member of the Linnaean Society of London, the German Botanical Society, the Royal Botanical Society of Belgium, and other academic societies.
Honors
The genus ''
Muellerargia
''Muellerargia'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae.
Its native range is Madagascar, and southern and eastern Malesia to northern Australia. It is found in Christmas Island, Java, Lesser Sunda Islands, Madagasca ...
'' of the family
Cucurbitaceae
The Cucurbitaceae, also called cucurbits or the gourd family, are a plant family consisting of about 965 species in around 95 genera, of which the most important to humans are:
*''Cucurbita'' – squash, pumpkin, zucchini, some gourds
*''Lagena ...
was named in his honor by
Alfred Cogniaux
Célestin Alfred Cogniaux (7 April 1841 – 15 April 1916) was a Belgian botanist. Amongst other plants, the genus '' Neocogniauxia'' of orchids is named after him.
In 1916 his enormous private herbarium was acquired by the National Botanic ...
, as well as the following species, ''
Psychotria
''Psychotria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It contains 1,582 species and is therefore one of the largest genera of flowering plants. The genus has a pantropical distribution and members of the genus are small understor ...
argoviensis''
Steyerm.(in the
Rubiaceae
The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules ...
family)
[Mem.]
Notes
See also
*
:Taxa named by Johannes Müller Argoviensis
References
*
*
John Briquet,
Notice sur la vie et les œuvres de Jean Müller' // Bulletin de l'Herbier Boissier, Genève, 1896
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muller Argoviensis, Johannes
1828 births
1896 deaths
People from Kulm District
19th-century Swiss botanists
Swiss lichenologists