Johann Jacob Dillenius

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Johann Jacob Dillenius
Oxford University
Author abbrev. (botany)Dill.

Johann Jacob Dillen Dillenius (1684 – 2 April 1747) was a German

liverworts, hornworts, lycopods, algae, lichens and fungi
.

Biography

Dillenius was born at Darmstadt and was educated at the University of Giessen, earlier the family name had been changed from Dillen to Dillenius. In 1721, at the instance of the botanist William Sherard (1659–1728), he moved to England. In 1734 Dillenius was appointed Sherardian professor of botany at Oxford, in accordance with the will of Sherard, who at his death in 1728 left the university £3000 for the endowment of the chair, as well as his library and herbarium,[1] all on the condition that Dillenius should be appointed the first professor.[2]

Dillenius died at Oxford, of

Oxford University. For an account of his collections preserved at Oxford, see The Dillenian Herbaria, by G. Claridge Druce (Oxford, 1907).[1]

Work

At Giessen Dillenius wrote botanical papers for the Ephemerides naturae curiosorum. He printed, in 1719, his flora of the university's surroundings, a Catalogus plantarum sponte circa Gissam nascentium, illustrated with figures he had personally drawn and engraved, with descriptions of several new species.[1]

In 1724 Dillenius published the third edition of John Ray's Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum. It incorporated plant species discovered by Samuel Brewer, and work on mosses by Adam Buddle.[3][4] It remained a standard reference for British botanists until the appearance of Carl Linnaeus's Species Plantarum in 1761.

Hortus Elthamensis

In 1732 he published Hortus Elthamensis,

Eltham, London, in the collection of Sherard's younger brother, James (1666—1738), who, after making a fortune as an apothecary, devoted himself to gardening and music. For this work Dillenius himself drew and engraved 324 plates, containing 417 figures of the plants.[1][6] The title called the plants "rare", but the botanist Will Tjaden comments that they were "often only uncommon and not always of very recent introduction."[6] The book was described by Linnaeus, who spent a month with him at Oxford in 1736, and afterwards dedicated his Critica Botanica to him, as opus botanicum quo absolutius mundus non vidit, "a botanical work of which the world has not seen one more authoritative". Linnaeus later named a genus of tropical tree Dillenia in his honour.[1]

Historia muscorum

Dillenius wrote Historia muscorum (1741), a natural history of lower plants including

fungi together.[10][11]

Honours

In 1753, Carl Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum published Dillenia, a genus of flowering plants in the family Dilleniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of southern Asia, Australasia, and the Indian Ocean islands, both genus and family named in Dillenius's honour.[12]

In 1997, the Spanish botanist Gerardo Antonio Aymard Corredor published Neodillenia, a genus of flowering plants from South America belonging to the family Dilleniaceae, named in Dillenius's honour.[13]

Selected publications

The standard author abbreviation Dill. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dillen, Johann Jakob". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 272.
  2. ^ Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1888). "Dillenius, John James" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 15. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 79.
  3. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/3366. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  4. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/3883. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  5. ^ Dillenius 1732.
  6. ^
    JSTOR 42792377
    .
  7. ^ Arora, Nikita (3 November 2022). "The many meanings of moss". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  8. ISBN 978-0-415-32681-0
    .
  9. ^ "Historia Muscorum". Oxford Herbaria, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  10. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7419. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  11. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7648. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  12. Saint Louis, Missouri: Missouri Botanical Garden
    . Retrieved 20 February 2010. Type Specimens: Dillenia indica
  13. ^ "Neodillenia Aymard". Plants of the World Online: Kew Science. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  14. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Dill.

Bibliography

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