Johann Gerhard König
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Johann Gerhard König (29 November 1728 – 26 June 1785) was a
Baltic German Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are Germans, ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), their resettlement in 1945 after the end ...
botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
and
physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...
who served in the Tranquebar Mission, 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 ''Bergera koenigii'', commonly known as curry tree, curry bush or sweet neem, is a tree in the citrus family Rutaceae, first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1767. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, southern China and mainland Southeast Asi ...
''(Murraya'' ''koenigii).''


Biography

König was born near ''Kreutzburg'' in Polish Livonia, which is now Krustpils in
Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
. He was a private pupil of
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
in 1757, and lived in
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
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 and on his voyage to India, he passed through Cape Town where he met Governor Rijk Tulbagh 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 (1705–67). In 1774 he took up a better paying position as
naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
for the
Nawab of Arcot The Carnatic Sultanate ( Persian: ; Tamil: ; Urdu: ) also known as Carnatic State or Arcot State was a kingdom in southern India between about 1690 and 1855, ruled by a Muslim nawab under the legal purview of the Nizam of Hyderabad, until thei ...
, 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 ''In Absentia'' is the seventh studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released on 24 September 2002. The album marked several changes for the band, with it being the first with new drummer Gavin Harrison and the f ...
'' from the
University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...
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, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...
and to
Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
, 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 The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
where he remained until his death, undertaking several scientific journeys and working with notable scientists like
William Roxburgh William Roxburgh FRSE FRCPE Linnean Society of London, FLS (3/29 June 1751 – 18 February 1815) was a Scottish people, Scottish surgeon and botanist who worked extensively in India, describing species and working on economic botany. He is known ...
,
Johan Christian Fabricius Johann Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is co ...
and Sir
Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English Natural history, naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the European and American voyages of scientific exploration, 1766 natural-history ...
. 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, Johan Peter Rottler and the mission doctor Johann Gottfried Klein of the Tranquebar Mission 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 The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
in 1793. Most plants of König and his successors were sent back to Europe and described by A.J. Retzius, Roth,
Schrader Schrader is a family name that is very common roughly within the Triangle Hannover-Hamburg-Berlin within Germany (so-called " Eastfalia", part of today's states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt). It means tailor. Carriers of this name have spread ...
, Willdenow,
Martin Vahl Martin Henrichsen Vahl (10 October 1749 – 24 December 1804) was a Denmark-Norway, Danish-Norwegian botanist, herbalist and zoologist. Biography Martin Vahl was born in Bergen, Norway and attended Bergen Cathedral School. He studied botany at ...
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 Phuket (; , , or ''Tongkah'') is one of the Southern Thailand, southern Provinces of Thailand, provinces (''changwat'') of Thailand. It consists of the island of Phuket, List of islands of Thailand, the country's largest island, and another 3 ...
. 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 Kakinada (; formerly known as Cocanada) is a Port, port city and municipal corporation in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Situated along the Bay of Bengal, it serves as the headquarters of Kakinada district and is a prominent economic and c ...
in 1785. He bequeathed his papers to Sir
Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English Natural history, naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the European and American voyages of scientific exploration, 1766 natural-history ...
. He described many plants used in Indian Medicine 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 (, ) is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *people from the Ancient Roman Fabricia gens, gens Fabricia: **Gaius Fabricius Luscinus, the first of the Fabricii to move to Rome * Johann Goldsmid (1587–1616), known by his ...
. 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 Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
, as was a species of curry-leaf tree ''
Murraya koenigii ''Bergera koenigii'', commonly known as curry tree, curry bush or sweet neem, is a tree in the citrus family Rutaceae, first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1767. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, southern China and mainland Southeast Asi ...
''.


References


Further reading

*


External links


Linnean herbarium

Tranquebar and its History
* Biographies a

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an
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