Franz Boos
Franz Boos (23 December 1753 (
Boos came from a gardening family that lived in the
Franz Boos is best known for successful voyages to America, the Caribbean and South Africa during which he collected a wide range of natural history specimens for the parks and gardens, menagerie, and Cabinet of the Emperor's palace at Schönbrunn.[1] The Emperor had appointed Franz Joseph Märter (1753–1827) as organiser and leader of this voyage of scientific exploration. Franz Boos, an under-gardener at the time, was selected as the primary collector specialising in tropical plants for the greenhouses.[2] When Boos sailed to the Isle de France (now Mauritius) and Bourbon (Reunion), he was a passenger of the then unknown merchant sailor Nicolas Baudin. The knowledge gained from Austrian Boos was later combined with French horticultural and botanical expertise which lead Baudin to the forefront of scientific exploration and research as the century moved into the upheaval of Revolutionary Wars.[2] He worked at the Jardin du Roi, Pamplemousses, with Nicolas Céré and at Palma[3] with Joseph-François Charpentier de Cossigny.[2]
In recognition of his work, Boos was eventually promoted to the position of Director of the Royal Parks and Gardens at the Schönbrunn palace.
Botanical and horticultural exploration
Boos traveled on two major scientific expeditions on behalf of Emperor Joseph II, the first was to America (1783–1785), the second to the Caribbean, Cape of South Africa and Mascarenes (1786–1788).
America and Caribbean Bahamas 1783–1785
Following a request from the
Greenhouses at Schönbrunn already displayed an impressive collection of plants from the Jacquin's explorations in the Antilles and South America made from 1754 to 1759.[10] However, in 1780 there had been a heating failure that had frozen this famous collection of exotic plants which now needed expanding.[9]
South Africa, Bourbon and Isle de France 1786–1788
On his return he was almost immediately sent by Jacquin on a second mission to
Boos was evidently the leader as he was well educated, spoke several languages and was a botanist as well as a gardener, whereas Scholl was a working gardener with little scientific knowledge. Joseph II’s intention was for them to make collections of tropical plants from Isle de France, but bad weather forced their ship to shelter at the Cape of Good Hope delaying their departure. Many South African plants were collected, on one occasion together with the Scottish gardener-botanist Francis Masson from Kew Gardens in London. Boos eventually travelled on to Mauritius leaving Scholl behind to continue collecting, returning to the Cape in 1788 for a few months before leaving for Vienna in July 1788 with a large collection of specimens and living plants. Scholl remained at the Cape for twelve years unable to get passage on a ship that was prepared to transport his plant collections. At the Cape Scholl was assisted by Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon who gave him protection, assisted him with his field excursions and allowed him to grow his plants in his garden, often referred to in the literature as ‘the Gordon’s Garden’. Many plants were established in this garden and Scholl collected their seed. Scholl sent several shipments of dried bulbs and seeds to Vienna, four of these being recorded in the Cape Archives in the period 1790 to 1792.[12]
Plants were shipped to the Austrian Consul in Holland who then forwarded them upriver and overland to Vienna. Scholl eventually returned to Vienna in 1799 with his large collection of living plants and seed from Erica species. Present-day botanist Dr Kiehn and staff at the Schönbrunn Botanical Gardens believe that the ericas now growing at the Belvedere Palace Garden date back over 200 years to the Boos and Scholl collections as there is no evidence of any other collections being grown. Both the Belvedere Palace and Schönbrunn Palace Gardens were damaged by bombing at the end of the Second World War but though most of the glasshouse plants were destroyed at the end of the war many survived because they were purposely propagated for other gardens and glasshouses.[12]
After Boos left the Isle de France and Pamplemousses, the garden's Director
Association with Nicolas Baudin
When Boos travelled from the Cape to Isle de France, and from there to Trieste carrying the natural history collections it was on the ship Pepita commanded by Nicolas Baudin, at that time a merchant mariner. Baudin was interested in the collections which included many specimens from the Pamplemousses Botanical Garden on the Isle de France (Mauritius). From Boos Baudin learned much about the transport of live plants and animals and the storage of natural history specimens, knowledge that he would later use in the scientific exploration of New Holland (Australia), and elsewhere, for Napoleon.[14] The arrival of the Pepita, under its formal name, Josepha,was reported in the press:
Vienna, 21 July. According to letters from Trieste, the French freighter Josepha, Cap. Boudin, coming from the East Indies has anchored in the harbour there with various animals and plants for the Emperor's menagerie at Schoenbrunn, for his gardens and for his Natural History Cabinet. These animals and plants have been collected by order of His Majesty with the greatest care by Mr. Boos, Imperial Court Gardener, which he has sought out in the Isles of France and Bourbon, in Madagascar and at the Cape of Good Hope.[15]
Plant collections
Boos collected in Europe, Austria, South Africa, Madagascar, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and the West Indies his collections probably in the British Museum of Natural Historia and Vienna.[9]
Haemanthus amarylloides Jacq. is an endemic South African bulbous plant first described in 1804 by Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin from specimens sent to the Schönbrunn Palace gardens by Boos and Scholl.In 1799 a cycad was collected by Georg Scholl on the Cape, this being returned to Vienna where, in 1801, it was described and illustrated as Zamia cycadifolia by botanist Jaquin.[16]
Other achievements and honours
On his return from Africa, Boos replaced Jacquin as Director of the Schönbrunn parks and gardens.[9] After the death of Richard van der Schot, and because of his achievements, in 1790 Emperor Leopold II appointed Boos Director of the Schönbrunn Menagerie and the so-called "Dutch Palace Garden", then in 1807 Director of all the Courtyards. In 1810 he was admitted to the Imperial Council to eventually retire in 1827. Boos’s successor as Director of the Courtyard Gardens and Menagerie at Schönbrunn was Bredemeyer who, in 1793 was appointed Head Gardener, a post he held from 1827 until his death in 1839. Apart from his many plant and animal introductions Boos also prepared a plan of the courtyard gardens of Schönbrunn in 1780 shortly after they had been completed. Together with his son Joseph Boos, also a keen gardener and botanist at Schönbrunn he published, in 1816, a catalogue of the cultivated and wild plants grown during his time at Schönbrunn (Schönbrunn's flora, the cultivated plants of the Royal Dutch botanical courtyard garden at Schönbrunn (published by Geistinger, Vienna and Trieste).[9] The later Düsseldorf garden artist Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe while training as a gardener studied with Franz Boos in Vienna. Boos was a childhood friend of Peter Joseph Elder a senior gardener since 1788 in Brühl (Rhineland) and Head of the Botanical Garden of the University of Bonn and gave his son Peter Joseph (who later became famous landscape gardener) a job at Schönbrunn. In 1905 Franz Boos Lane in Hietzing, Vienna, was named after him.
See also
- List of gardener-botanist explorers of the Enlightenment
- European and American voyages of scientific exploration
- Plantarum Rariorum Horti Caesarei Schoenbrunnensis (4 volumes, 1797–1804) Nicolas Jaquin's catalogue of plants held in the collections at the Emperor Joseph IIin Vienna between 1797 and 1804.
References
- ^ .“Short Account of the Imperial Botanic Garden at Schönbrunn, near Vienna”, Charles Konig and John Sims (ed.), Annals of Botany, Volume 2, 1806, pp.385-386.
- ^ a b c Ly-Tio-Fane 1991, pp. 333–362
- ^ Plantation at Isle de France
- ^ Kronfeld1891, p. 2
- ^ King 2008, pp. 1–28
- ^ Journal für Rationelle Politik (Hamburg), July 1782. Guillaume Bolts, Recueil de pièces authentiques, relatives aux affaires de la ci-devant Société impériale asiatique de Trieste, gérées à Anvers, Antwerp, 1787, pp.99-100.
- ^ Journal für rationelle Politik (Hamburg), Julius 1782, p.176.
- ^ Ignaz von Born to Benjamin Franklin, 21 November 1783; Benjamin Franklin, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin: Volume 41: September 16, 1783, through February 29, 1784, Yale University Press, 2014, p.214.
- ^ a b c d e f British Museum - Plant collectors
- ^ a b Ly-Tio-Fane 1991, p. 350
- ^ Ly-Tio-Fane 1991, p. 333
- ^ a b See - History Archived 2012-03-25 at the Wayback Machine of Erica verticillata
- ^ Ly-Tio-Fane 1996
- ^ Horner 1987, p. 25
- Gazette van Gend, 3 Julii, Gazeta de Madrid, 22 Julio, Wekelijks Nieuws uit Loven, 24 Augusti, Gazeta de Lisboa, 2 Setembro 1788.
- ^ Whitelock 2003, p. 188
Bibliography
- „Franz Boos, Director der k.k. Hofgärten“, Österreichisches Archiv für Geschichte, Erdbeschreibung, Staatenkunde, Kunst und Literatur, 38, 29 Marz 1832, S.150-151, 31 Marz 1832, S.152-153, 42, 7 April 1832, S.166-167.
- Kisling jr, Vernon N (1998). "Colonial menageries and the exchange of exotic faunas". Archives of Natural History. 25 (3): 303–320. .
- Franz Boos In: Austrian Biographical Dictionary 1815-1950 (ABL). Volume 1. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences. 1957. p. 10.
- Horner, Frank (1987). The French Reconnaissance: Baudin in Australia 1801–1803. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. ISBN 0-522-84339-5.
- Kronfeld, Moritz (1891). "Zur Geschichte des Shönbrunner-Gartens". Wiener Zeitung. 210 (15): 2.
- King, Robert J (2008). "William Bolts and the Austrian Origins of the Lapérouse Expedition". Terrae Incognitae. 40: 1–28. S2CID 128626457.
- Ly-Tio-Fane, Madeleine (1991). "A reconnaissance of tropical resources during Revolutionary years: the role of the Paris Museum d'Histoire Naturelle". Archives of Natural History. 18 (3): 333–362. .
- Ly-Tio-Fane, Madeleine (1996). "Botanic gardens: connecting links in plant transfer between the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean regions". Harvard Papers in Botany. 8: 7–14.
- Reichardt, Heinrich W (1876). Duncker & Humblot (ed.). Franz Boos. General German Biography. Vol. 3. Leipzig: Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. p. 138.
- Snijman, Deidré (1984). The Genus Haemanthus: A Revision. National Botanic Gardens of South Africa. ISBN 0-620-07339-X.
- Urban, Ignatius (1964). Symbolae Antillanae Volume 3 (repr. of 1902 publication). Amsterdam: A. Asher & Co. pp. 25–26.
- Whitelock, Lauren M (2003). The Cycads. Portland Oregon: Timber Press. ISBN 0-88192-522-5.
Further reading
- Lindorf, H (2004). "Notices on the Austrian Expedition in a Venezuelan Document dated 1787 and Comments on the Botanical Names linked to the Collectors". Acta Botanica Venezuelica. 27 (1): 57–64.
This article incorporates text from the German language Wikipedia article de:Franz Boos.
External links
- Plan of the Schönbrunn Garden. Franz Boos, 1780. Albertina, (Vienna)