Joseph Gaertner (12 March 1732 – 14 July 1791) was a German botanist, best known for his work on seeds, ''

De Fructibus et Seminibus Plantarum ''De Fructibus et Seminibus Plantarum'', also known by its standard botanical abbreviation ''Fruct. Sem. Pl.'', is a three-volume botanic treatise by Joseph Gaertner. The first volume was published in December 1788. The second volume was publishe ...

'' (1788-1792).

Biography

He was born in

Calw Calw (; previously pronounced and sometimes spelled ''Kalb'' accordingly) is a town in the middle of Baden-Württemberg in the south of Germany, capital and largest town of the district Calw. It is located in the Northern Black Forest and is a ...

, and studied in Göttingen under Albrecht von Haller. He was primarily a naturalist, but also worked at

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

. He travelled extensively to visit other naturalists. He was professor of anatomy in

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in three ...

in 1760, and was appointed professor of botany at St Petersburg in 1768, but returned to Calw in 1770. Gaertner made back cross to convert one species into another. Back cross increases nuclear gene frequency His observations were: 1. Dominance of traits 2. Equal contribution of male and female to the progeny 3. No variation in F1 (first generation of descendants) 4. Large variation in F2 (second generation of descendants) including parental and intermediate types 5. Some of F2 plants had entirely new traits but he was unable to give possible explanation for observed data but which was brilliantly done by Mendel

Julius Sachs Julius Sachs (July 6, 1849 – February 2, 1934) was an American educator, founder of the Sachs Collegiate Institute who belongs to the Goldman–Sachs family of bankers. Sachs was born on July 6, 1849, in Baltimore. After taking his A.B. at ...

writes

''De Fructibus''

By 1770 he had already begun work on his ''De Fructibus et Seminibus Plantarum'', but thereafter he gave himself up almost entirely to it, becoming nearly blind through his persistent studies, partly with the

microscope A microscope () is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisi ...

. The work's minutely accurate descriptions, comprising a thousand and more species, introduced a new era in plant morphology. The scientific value of the book was much increased by the addition of 180 copper-plate engravings. The genus of plants '' Gaertnera'' in

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 a ...

was named after him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaertner, Joseph 1732 births 1791 deaths People from Calw Botanists with author abbreviations 18th-century German botanists German mycologists Fellows of the Royal Society Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Honorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences