The State’s Greatest Botanist
He was Louis David von Schwcinitz and lie
contributed amazingly to fllie general
know ledge of planl life in North Carolina
and in oilier seel ions as w ell.
NOT ninny people are acquaint¬
ed with the name of the great¬
est botanist that ever lived and
worked within the borders of North
Carolina. The purpose of this article
is to give some information concern¬
ing him and his great work.
Louis David von Schwcinitz was
born February 13, 1780, at Bethle¬
hem, l*enn., n small settlement of the
Moravian Church. Ho became very
definitely interested in botany beforo
he was seven years old, and his inter¬
est never flagged. He visited Nazareth
Hall, where the Moravian Academy
was located with his grandfather,
Bishop do Wnttcville, and saw lying
on a table a specimen of Lichen digit a-
tiu which fascinated him. In after
years he was wont to say that his inter¬
est in the vegetable kindom dated from
that moment.
Ho spent eleven years at this school
and received some instruction in bot¬
any along with other studies. After
his death there was found among his
manuscripts one describing the flora
of Nazareth and vicinity which had
been made in those early years.
Attended Theological School
Hie father was called back to Ger¬
many in 1798 and took his family with
him. Louis was placed in the theologi¬
cal school at Niesky. Here he became
acquainted with Prof. -J. B. Albcrtini,
who became his friend and follow-
worker in botanical investigations. In
his spare time lie kept up his work in
botany.
His first botanical work was pub¬
lished in 1805. In this he and Prof.
Albcrtini collaborated. It dealt with
the fungi of Lusatia. The volume con¬
tained 400 pages. The twelve plates,
containing 93 new species, with which
it was illustrated, were drawn and
engraved by Schweinitz’s own hand.
He had already become a teacher.
About this time he also became a Mo¬
ravian preacher.
In 1*12, Schwcinitz was appoint¬
ed general agent of the Moravian
Church in the southern area of the
United States. Before starting for
America he married Louise Amelia
LeDoux, who belonged to a French
family living in Stettin.
By REV.
С.
T. THRIFT
When he came to America he took
up his abode at Salem, N. G\, be¬
cause that was the chief church set¬
tlement of the district to which he had
been assigned, llis official duties were
very heavy but he found time to carry
on liis botanical researches. The first
fruit of his botanical work in the South
was a synopsis of the fungi of North
Carolina, written in Latin, which was
given to the world in 1818 through
the Society of Naturalists at Loipsic.
Among the 1,373 species described in
it there are 315 that were new to
science.
In 1821 he published at Kalcigh u
pamphlet containing descriptions of
seventy-six species of H epaticae (liv¬
erworts), among them being nine
which had been discovered by him. In
the sumo year he contributed to the
American Journal of Science a mono¬
graph on the genus Viola, in which
five now species were described. This
was a valuable paper and was often
cited by European botanists. In it he
made the interesting statement that
among thirty species of violets, then
known in America, there was not one
exactly like any of the twenty Euro¬
pean species.
A Wide Field of Knowledge
Iii 1823 the then well-known bot¬
anist communicated to the Lyceum of
Natural History (afterward the Acad¬
emy of Natural Sciences) of Now
York, a key or analytical table for
determining the American species of
Carox, the largest genus of the sedges.
This production, though small in bulk,
could result only from ample knowl¬
edge and exact discrimination. About
1825 he began to devote himself to
the great work of a Synopsis of North
North American Fungi. Ho had in¬
tended this for publication in one of
i lie European journals but was in¬
duced to present it in 1831 to the
American Philosophical Society of
Philadelphia. In this work 3,098 spe¬
cies belonging to 246 genera were de¬
scribed, of which 1,203 species and
several genera had been discovered
by him. If to these discoveries we
add those made by Schwcinitz in
other orders we have a total of nearly
1.400 new species added to botanical
science by the talents and industry of
a single observer. The whole number
of species known at his death was
estimated at 60,000.
Schwcinitz bequeathed his collec¬
tion of plants to the Academy of Nat¬
ural Sciences of Philadelphia. It com¬
prised 23,000 species of phanerogams
and many thousand cryptogams. A
large portion of the specimens were
from the most remote parts of the
world, haring been obtained through
exchange with American and Euro¬
pean explorers. They included the
Baldwin Collection from Florida,
Brazil, and La Plata, which ho had
bought, and in which he had found
3,000 species not before in his herba¬
rium. The examination and arrange¬
ment of these plants was ono of his
last scientific labors.
Received Many Honors
The high esteem in which he and
his works were held by men of science
procured for him honorary member¬
ship in many societies devoted to
natural history both in America and
in Europe. On one of his exploring
trips he discovered among the Saura-
ton Mountains of Stokes County a
most beautiful waterfall which 'still
bears liis name.
Among his well-deserved honors
was the naming for him of Schwcin-
itiia Odorata (sweet pine sap) by
■Stephen Elliott. This is a small plant
found from Maryland southward, and
bears a spike of flesh-colored flowers
which exhale the odor of violets.
During his residence at Salem he
was offered the presidency of the
University of North Carolina. This
shows that he was a great man. But
the acceptance of this honorable po¬
sition would necessitate giving up his
service in the Moravian Church and
he declined it. This shows ho was a
greater man.
A general characterization of liis
work cannot be given better than in
( Continued on page sixteen)
