Michael Joseph François Scheidweiler (1 August 1799 – 24 September 1861) was a German-born professor of

botany 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 w ...

and

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given ...

, whose main area of interest was the

Cactaceae A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...

. From a collection by

Henri Guillaume Galeotti Henri Guillaume Galeotti (10 September 1814 – 1858) was a French-Belgian botanist and geologist of Italian parentage born in Paris. He specialized in the study of the family Cactaceae. He studied geology and natural history at the ''Etablisseme ...

, he first described ''

Ariocarpus ''Ariocarpus'' is a small genus of succulent, subtropical plants of the family Cactaceae. The name comes from the ancient Greek "aria" (an oak type) and "carpos" (=fruit) because of the resemblance of the fruit of the two genus in acorn form. A ...

retusus'', type species of the genus in 1838 in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Life

Scheidweiler was born in Cologne on 1 August 1799 and after studying humanities in

Siegburg Siegburg (i.e. ''fort on the Sieg river''; Ripuarian: ''Sieburch'') is a city in the district of Rhein-Sieg-Kreis in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the banks of the rivers Sieg and Agger, 10 kilometres from the former seat of ...

he qualified as a

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

. He returned to Siegburg for a year before embarking on travels through much of Germany and Switzerland to acquire botanical knowledge, and then worked as a pharmacist and

industrial chemist The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, it converts raw materials (oil, natural gas, air, water, metals, and minerals) into more than 70,000 different products. The ...

in Cologne and Aachen, where he married. Charles van Bambeke, "Scheidweiler (Michel-Joseph-François)", in ''

Biographie Nationale de Belgique The ''Biographie nationale de Belgique'' ( French; "National Biography of Belgium") is a biographical dictionary of Belgium. It was published by the Royal Academy of Belgium in 44 volumes between 1866 and 1986. A continuation series, entitled the ' ...

''
vol. 21
(1911-1913), 632-636. in In 1830 he settled in Belgium, first in

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

, later in

, where he lectured on natural history at the Établissement Géographique de Bruxelles that

Philippe Vandermaelen Philippe Vandermaelen (1795–1869) was a Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and ...

had established in 1830 and, from its foundation in 1836, at the State School of Veterinary Medicine and Agriculture (now the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège). In 1850 he launched the short-lived journal ''L'agriculteur belge et étranger''. In 1851 he was appointed instructor at the State School of Horticulture in

Gentbrugge Gentbrugge is one of 25 districts ("wijken") of the city of Ghent, Belgium in the Flemish Region of Belgium. Gentbrugge together with Oud Gentbrugge had been a separate municipality before 1 January 1977, when it fused with Ghent. Neighborhoods ...

that

Louis van Houtte Louis Benoît van Houtte (29 June 1810, in Ypres – 9 May 1876, in Ghent) was a Belgian horticulturist who was with the Jardin Botanique de Brussels between 1836 and 1838 and is best known for the journal ''Flore des Serres et des Jardins de ...

had founded in 1849.Biodiversity Heritage Library
Taxonomic literature : a selective guide to botanical publications In 1854, the genus ''

Scheidweileria ''Begonia'' is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Begoniaceae. The genus contains more than 2,000 different plant species. The Begonias are native to moist subtropical and tropical climates. Some species are commonly grown ind ...

'' (family

Begoniaceae Begoniaceae is a family of flowering plants with two genera and about 2040 species occurring in the subtropics and tropics of both the New World and Old World. All but one of the species are in the genus ''Begonia''. There have been many recent d ...

) was named in his honor by

Johann Friedrich Klotzsch Johann Friedrich Klotzsch (9 June 1805 – 5 November 1860) was a German pharmacist and botanist. His principal work was in the field of mycology, with the study and description of many species of mushroom. Klotzsch was born in Wittenberg. Orig ...

. He died in Ghent on 24 September 1861.

Publications

*''Cours raisonné et pratique d'agriculture et de chimie agricole'', 2 volumes (1841-1843). *''Traité théorique et pratique de l'élève et de l'amélioration des bêtes à cornes'' (1855). *Together with Pierre-Victor Royer, Scheidweiler translated

Matthias Jakob Schleiden Matthias Jakob Schleiden (; 5 April 1804 – 23 June 1881) was a German botanist and co-founder of cell theory, along with Theodor Schwann and Rudolf Virchow. Career Matthias Jakob Schleiden was born in Hamburg. on 5 April 1804. His father was ...

's ''Die Pflanze und ihr Leben'' (1848) into French as ''La plante et sa vie'' (1859). *Scheidweiler was an active contributor to the ''

Journal d'horticulture pratique A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

'' (of which he served as editor for a short while) and to the '' Annales de pomologie belge et étrangère''

Author abbreviation

Scheidweiler is denoted by the author abbreviation Scheidw. when citing a

botanical name A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the '' International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or Group epithets must conform to the ''Intern ...

Notes

Botanists with author abbreviations 19th-century German botanists 19th-century Belgian botanists German taxonomists Belgian taxonomists German emigrants to Belgium 1799 births 1861 deaths {{Belgium-botanist-stub