Richard Ernest Kunze (b. in

Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, 7 April 1838; d. 1919) was a

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

. He came to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1854, and was graduated at the

Eclectic Medical College Eclectic Medical College of Pennsylvania, later American University of Philadelphia, was a medical college in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the 19th century that followed the eclectic model of medicine. It absorbed Philadelphia College of Me ...

of New York in 1868, subsequently becoming a member of the

board of trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

of this institution, was president of the New York Therapeutical Association in 1880, introduced to the medical profession various drugs derived from

cacti 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 ...

, and added greatly to the previous knowledge of

medical botany Botany, also called plant science (or plant sciences), 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 ...

. He published a series of

monograph A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph ...

s on ''Cactus'' (Albany, 1875); '' Cereus Grandiflorus and Cereus bonplandi'' (1876); ''Cereus triangularis and Phyllocactus grandis'' (1876); ''Cardinal Points in the Study of Medical Botany'' (New York, 1881); and ''The Germination and Vitality of Seeds'' (1881). In 1900, he was collecting cacti, mainly around

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

, for the Haage nursery.Urs Eggli and Leonard E. Newton
''Etymological dictionary of succulent plant names''
Birkhäuser, 2004, p. 129. At least two species of cactus were named after him, ''Grusonia kunzei'' and ''Mammillaria kunzeana''. He also wrote a paper on medical

entomology Entomology () is the science, scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such ...

.Read at the World's Medical Conference on June 2, 1893. See United States

Bureau of Entomology The Bureau of Entomology was a unit within the Federal government of the United States from 1894 to 1934. It developed from a section of the Department of Agriculture which had been working on entomological researches and allied issues relating to ...

, ''Insect life'', Vol. 6 (1894)
p. 332

Notes

References

* American botanists 1838 births 1919 deaths 19th-century American physicians German emigrants to the United States {{US-botanist-stub