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Johann Gerhard König (29 November 1728 – 26 June 1785) was a Baltic German
botanist 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 wo ...
and physician who served in the
Tranquebar Mission The Tranquebar Mission ( da, Trankebarmissionen; ta, தரங்கம்பாடி பணி) was established in 1706 by two German missionaries from Halle namely, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau. Ziegenbalg and Plütschau ...
, India before joining service under the Nawab of Arcot, and then the English East India Company. He collected natural history specimens including plants, particularly those of medical interest, from the region and several species are named after him including the curry tree ''(Murraya'' ''koenigii).''


Biography

König was born near ''Kreutzburg'' in Polish Livonia, which is now Krustpils 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 ...
. He was a private pupil of Carl Linnaeus in 1757, and lived in Denmark from 1759 to 1767 during which time he examined the plants of Iceland. In 1767 he joined as a medical officer to the
Tranquebar Mission The Tranquebar Mission ( da, Trankebarmissionen; ta, தரங்கம்பாடி பணி) was established in 1706 by two German missionaries from Halle namely, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau. Ziegenbalg and Plütschau ...
and on his voyage to India, he passed through Cape Town where he met Governor
Rijk Tulbagh Ryk Tulbagh (14 May 1699, Utrecht – 11 August 1771, Cape Town) was Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony from 27 February 1751 to 11 August 1771 under the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Tulbagh was the son of Dirk Tulbagh and Catharina Catte ...
with an introduction from Linnaeus, collecting plants in the Table Mountain region from 1 to 28 April 1768. König replaced the position made available following the death of Halle-educated physician
Samuel Benjamin Cnoll Samuel Benjamin Cnoll (1705 – 1767) was a German physician who worked in the Halle mission to Tranquebar. He was among the first to found a western-style pharmacy or ''Laboratorium Chymicum'' in India in 1732. Cnoll studied medicine at Halle and ...
(1705–67). In 1774 he took up a better paying position as naturalist for the Nawab of Arcot, serving in that position until 1778.Rao, B S Subba (1998) History of Entomology in India. Institution of Agricultural Technologists. In 1773, he received the Doctor's degree '' in absentia'' from the University of Copenhagen possibly for his studies on indigenous remedies published as ''De remediorum indigenorum ad morbes cuivis regioni endemicos expuguandos efficacia''. He became naturalist to the Nawab of Arcot in 1774 and embarked on a trip to the mountains north of
Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
and to
Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
, a description of which was later published in a Danish scientific journal. On 17 July 1778, König was appointed Naturalist at Madras with the British East India Company where he remained until his death, undertaking several scientific journeys and working with notable scientists like William Roxburgh, Johan Christian Fabricius and Sir
Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...
. König followed the example of the Moravian South-Asian Mission in Tranquebar in collecting and trading natural history objects on a large scale. His engagement in natural history encouraged missionaries like
Christoph Samuel John Christoph Samuel John (11 August 1747 – 1 September 1813) was a German missionary in the service of the Danish-Halle Mission in southern India at the Danish settlement of Tranquebar (Tharangambadi). He promoted schools, natural theology, and coll ...
,
Johan Peter Rottler Johan Peter Rottler (June 174924 January 1836) was a French missionary and botanist, most associated with the Danish Mission in Tranquebar and later Vepery, Chennai in southern India. He was born in Strasbourg, France in 1749, and studied at th ...
and the mission doctor
Johann Gottfried Klein Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name ''Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious" ...
of the
Tranquebar Mission The Tranquebar Mission ( da, Trankebarmissionen; ta, தரங்கம்பாடி பணி) was established in 1706 by two German missionaries from Halle namely, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau. Ziegenbalg and Plütschau ...
to follow this path. The mission doctor of the Moravian South-Asian Mission,
Benjamin Heyne Benjamin Heyne FLS (1770, Pirna, Döbra – 6 February 1819, Madras) was a German botanist, naturalist, and surgeon who worked in British India as a Botanist to Samalkot in the Madras Presidency under the British East India Company. He collected ...
, also followed the example of König and was appointed Naturalist of the British East India Company in 1793. Most plants of König and his successors were sent back to Europe and described by A.J. Retzius,
Roth Roth may refer to: Places Germany * Roth (district), in Bavaria, Germany ** Roth, Bavaria, capital of that district ** Roth (electoral district), a federal electoral district * Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany: ** Roth an der Our, in the district B ...
, Schrader,
Willdenow Carl Ludwig Willdenow (22 August 1765 – 10 July 1812) was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants. Willdenow was al ...
, Martin Vahl and James Edward Smith. Only Rottler published his own descriptions. König made several visits around the region and perhaps the most notable of his journeys was to Siam and the Malacca Straits in 1778–80, in this period he spent several months studying the flora and fauna in Phuket. He met Patrick Russell who arrived in India in 1782 at Tranquebar and the two remained in constant communication. He made trips to the hills near Vellore and Ambur and in 1776 a trip to the Nagori hills with George Campbell. In 1784, he visited Russell at Vizagapatnam on his way to Calcutta. On the way he suffered from dysentery and Roxburgh who was at Samalkota oversaw his treatment. He however did not recover and died at Jagannadhapuram, Kakinada in 1785. He bequeathed his papers to Sir
Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...
. He described many plants used in
Indian Medicine Indian medicine may refer to: *Ayurveda * Healthcare in India * Medical tourism in India *Pharmaceutical industry in India *Siddha medicine *Unani medicine * Native American ethnobotany *Medical ethnobotany of India See also *Traditional Tibetan me ...
and kept notes on other aspects of natural history including the termites of southern India and the collection and use of their alates as food. Koenig's collections of insects from southern India may have been used in descriptions by
Fabricius Fabricius ( la, smith, german: Schmied, Schmidt) is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *people from the Ancient Roman gens Fabricia: **Gaius Fabricius Luscinus, the first of the Fabricii to move to Rome * Johann Goldsmid (1587� ...
. The plant genus ''
Koenigia :Koenigia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Koenigia'' is a genus of plants in the family Polygonaceae. The genus ''Aconogonon'' has been merged into ''Koenigia''. Description Species of ''Koenigia'' are annual ...
'' was named for him by Linnaeus, as was a species of curry-leaf tree '' Murraya koenigii''.


References


Further reading

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External links


Linnean herbarium

Tranquebar and its History
* Biographies a

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Biographical Database of Southern African Science
{{DEFAULTSORT:Konig, Johann Gerhard Botanists with author abbreviations 1728 births 1785 deaths Botanists active in India Baltic-German people