Heinrich Sylvester Theodor Tiling
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Heinrich Sylvester Theodor Tiling (31 December 1818 in Wilkenhof,
Livonia Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...
, now in
Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
– 6 December 1871 in
Nevada City, California Nevada City (originally, ''Ustumah'', a Nisenan village; later, Nevada, Deer Creek Dry Diggins, and Caldwell's Upper Store) is the county seat of Nevada County, California, United States, northeast of Sacramento, southwest of Reno and northeas ...
, US) was a German–Russian physician and naturalist. During his later years he became an American citizen.


Early years

His parents were Johann Heinrich Tiling and Margarete, née Pearson of Balmadis. He studied medicine in
Dorpat Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern Europe, Northern Europe, European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres ...
from 1838 to 1844. He graduated and received a doctor's degree in 1844.


Career

Tiling became a physician at the "Russian North American Co." in Ayan, Siberia from 1845 through 1851. He went to Ayan over land with his young wife and arrived in winter 1845. The difficulties during the overland journey were extreme in parts. He published an account of it in ' see below. The German title of the book translates as: "A journey around the world from West to East through Siberia and the Pacific and Atlantic seas". During his time in Ayan, he kept a daily register of the temperature and rainfall for Ayan. He described all plants in the area and published an account of it with the director of the botanical gardens in
St. Petersburg, Russia 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 ...
,
Eduard August von Regel Eduard August von Regel (sometimes Edward von Regel or Edward de Regel or Édouard von Regel), Russian: Эдуард Август Фон Регель; (born 13 August 1815 in Gotha; died 15 April 1892 in St. Petersburg) was a German horticultural ...
(''Florula Ajanensis''; see below). He went back to Riga with his wife and four small children and arrived early 1852. After that, he practiced medicine in
Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...
from 1853 to 1854. From 1854 to 1863, he practiced in Wenden and from 1863 until 1868, in
Sitka, Alaska russian: Ситка , native_name_lang = tli , settlement_type = Consolidated city-borough , image_skyline = File:Sitka 84 Elev 135.jpg , image_caption = Downtown Sitka in 1984 , image_size ...
. He had settled in Sitka before the Alaska purchase. After it he stayed and later went on to
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
and
Nevada City, California Nevada City (originally, ''Ustumah'', a Nisenan village; later, Nevada, Deer Creek Dry Diggins, and Caldwell's Upper Store) is the county seat of Nevada County, California, United States, northeast of Sacramento, southwest of Reno and northeas ...
. He collected and described numerous plants and species in Siberia, Alaska, and California from 1844 to 1871 such as Tiling's monkeyflower, '' Mimulus tilingii'', native to North America.


Journey around the world

Directly after having got the doctor's degree, he was offered a post with the Russian-American Company to become the company surgeon in their newly created port on the Okhotsk Sea, Ayan. He married in the spring of 1844 Anna Elisabeth Fehrmann. She accompanied him on the overland journey to Siberia. Tiling started to learn the Russian language during his travels. The journey was slow and obviously lasted longer than planned and it was already winter when they arrived. After a lot of trouble that ended very nearly deadly, they arrived in Ayan on 4 December 1844 and Tiling began his work. At the time of his arrival, Ayan had only about 100 inhabitants and his duties as a doctor took up only about an hour per day. Thus Tiling could spend most of the day making scientific observations. One example is the temperature tables he made starting November 1847. He took temperatures three times per day, at 7 a.m., 2 p.m. and 9 pm, calculated monthly median values, and monthly high and low temperatures. He logged cloud cover, barometer readings, wind direction, and rainfall. He collected plants in the near vicinity of Ayan and according to his own conclusion "hardly missed one". His weather readings for Ayan are the oldest in Eastern Siberia. The flora of Ayan is one of the best documented in Siberia. In 1851, he and his family, now with four little children, took the boat from Ayan to Sachalin, Kamschatka, Sitka, Hawaii, Tahiti, around Cape Horn through the Atlantic Ocean back to Kronstadt.


Back in Europe

After the arrival in Europe, Tiling practised first in Riga. In 1854 he was the county surgeon for Wenden. Only when he moved to America he left this post.


Second journey

From 1863 to 1868, Tiling was surgeon in Sitka, Alaska. This was either again with the Russian-American Company, or with the Russian Government represented through the governor. Whether his wife and family accompanied him on this second journey is not entirely clear, yet it is very likely. She herself died in Riga in 1876, and also much later all their eight children. So nobody of the family stayed in the end in North America. At the time of the journey their youngest child Eduard was only six years old. Therefore, it can be assumed that at least his wife and some of the children came with him. In 1867 the US government purchased Alaska from Russia, yet Tiling stayed in Sitka. Most of the higher ranking Russian officials moved back to Europe. It is very likely that Tiling spoke English, his mother being English. His wife Anna was born in London and should have some degree of knowledge of the English language as well. There is no detailed written evidence about the later movements to San Francisco and Nevada City.


Critical assessment

Very obviously the collection and categorization of plants is core to Tiling's personality. This passion is with him throughout his life. From his various places of residence he send back plants, specimens, seeds, and descriptions. Lange and Gumprecht, the two persons that reviewed ', sing his praise for the introduction and popularisation of the pretty garden shrub '' Weigela Middendorfiana'' to Europe's gardens. In addition to that Regel wrote: "It is mainly Dr. Tiling to whom we owe the introduction of many excellent Siberian plants" The review of Lange and Gumprecht go far above a normal book review. They add information about Tilings voyage that is not contained in the book they review. The size of the review with 21 full pages is remarkable as well. Although ' was published anonymously the reviewers did know the author and supported his views. At least among the German speaking people "in the know" it was clear who the author of ' was. There must have been intensive contact between author and reviewers previously. Specifically intensive was Tilings exchange with the director of the Botanical Gardens in St Petersburg, Eduard August von Regel with whom he published ''Florula Ajanensis''. Trained as a medical man and having the collection of plants at his heart his interests far exceeded these two areas. One example is the meteorological observations in Ayan described above. This is probably the earliest systematic weather observations taken in Eastern Siberia. Through the scientifically trained experience of different geographical areas of the world and their resulting flora and fauna Tiling developed a very modern view of the development of nature. At the beginning of his lecture "On the inhabitants of the seas" (German: '), which he gave after his return from Ayan, he made people aware of the differences in the various parts of the sea and the reason for it. The Baltic Sea, on whose shore he and his audience was born and raised, he thought as very poor in diversity of species. Today that is an acknowledged fact. As the most widely known example for the extinction of species he names
Steller's sea cow Steller's sea cow (''Hydrodamalis gigas'') is an extinct sirenian described by Georg Wilhelm Steller in 1741. At that time, it was found only around the Commander Islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia; its range extended across ...
"… We have seen not very long ago the extinction of an animal of the sea and that in a part of the sea that seemed so vast to us that we thought it should give shelter for its harassed inhabitants." The large variety of species and individuals in the Sea of Okhotsk near his former home Ayan was described very lively. He combined this knowledge with what he had seen on his return voyage to Europe 1851–1852 as ship's surgeon from Ayan via
Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh: ...
,
Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and wes ...
, Sitka,
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
,
Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...
, around the
Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramírez ...
and through the Atlantic Ocean back to the baltic seaport
Kronstadt Kronstadt (russian: Кроншта́дт, Kronshtadt ), also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt or Kronštádt (from german: link=no, Krone for "crown" and ''Stadt'' for "city") is a Russian port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city of ...
, now a suburb of St. Petersburg. He drew the following conclusion: "… Add the huge numbers of sea lions, sea bears and walrusses, which you may encounter in various parts of the sea and you will have to confess that it is due to the complete annihilation of these creatures in the Baltic Sea to which we owe the deadly calmness that the view of the sea induces in us. We have so to speak only the splendid frame left of the gigantic picture that our creator has set before our eyes." With this he formulates an indeed very modern view and concern that scientists formulated distinctly during the last twenty years.


Plants named by him

More than 20 species were named after him.
International Plant Names Index The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It inclu ...
http://www.ipni.org/ipni/authorsearch?id=10669-1&query_type=by_id&output_format=object_view
The abbreviation Tiling indicates that Heinrich Sylvester Theodor Tiling has described this species for the first time. ;Brassicaceae *'' Arabis tilingii'' (Regel) Berkut. *'' Borodinia tilingii'' (Regel) Berkut. *'' Braya tilingii'' Regel *'' Hesperis tilingii'' Kuntze *'' Sisymbrium tilingii'' E.Fourn. *'' Smelowskia tilingii'' (Regel) Vorosch. ;Caryophyllaceae *'' Silene ajanensis'' (Regel & Tiling) Vorosch. *'' Sofianthe ajanensis'' (Regel & Tiling) Tzvelev *''
Stellaria sibirica ''Stellaria'' is a genus of about 190 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae, with a cosmopolitan distribution. Common names include starwort, stitchwort and chickweed. Description ''Stellaria'' species are relatively small ...
'' (Regel & Tiling) Schischk. ;Compositae / Asteraceae *'' Erigeron tilingii'' Vorosch. *'' Hieracium tilingii'' Üksip ;Convallariaceae *'' Streptopus tilingii'' (Regel) Grey *'' Streptopus ajanensis'' Tiling ex Maxim. ;Gentianaceae *''Swertia perennis'' L. subsp. ''stenopetala'' (Regel & Tiling) Vorosch. *'' Swertia stenopetala'' (Regel & Tiling) Pissjaukova ;Leguminosae / Fabaceae *'' Oxytropis tilingii'' Bunge *'' Spiesia tilingii'' Kuntze ;Ranunculaceae *''
Pulsatilla ajanensis The genus ''Pulsatilla'' contains about 40 species of herbaceous perennial plants native to meadows and prairies of North America, Europe, and Asia. Derived from the Hebrew word for Passover, "pasakh", the common name pasque flower refers to th ...
'' Regel & Tiling *''Thalictrum aquilegiifolium'' L. var. ''sibiricum'' Regel & Tiling *'' Trollius ochotensis'' Tiling ;Rosaceae *''Padus avium'' Mill. var. ''pubescens'' (Regel & Tiling) T.C.Ku & B.M.Barthol. *''Potentilla fragiformis'' Willd. var. ''villosa'' (Pall. ex Pursh) Regel & Tiling *''Potentilla nivea'' L. var. ''villosa'' (Pall. ex Pursh) Regel & Tiling *'' Sieversia selinifolia'' Fisch. ex Regel & Tiling *'' Sorbaria kirilowi'' (Regel & Tiling) Maxim. *'' Spiraea kirilowii'' Regel & Tiling ;Saxifragaceae *'' Saxifraga tilingiana'' Regel & Tiling ;Umbelliferae / Apiaceae *'' Tilingia'' Regel & Tiling *'' Tilingia ajanensis'' Regel & Tiling


Further reading

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References


Sources

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External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20080610191305/http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/dms/load/img/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Tiling, Heinrich Sylvester Theodor 19th-century botanists from the Russian Empire People of Russian America 1818 births 1871 deaths Botanists active in California Physicians from Alaska Physicians from California People from Livonia People from Nevada City, California People from Sitka, Alaska 19th-century American physicians 19th-century German physicians 19th-century German botanists 19th-century American botanists