Abstract

Jørgensen, Per M. 1999. Martin Vahl (1749-1804) – den første norske botanikkprofessor. Blyttia 57: 53-60.
Martin Vahl (1749-1804) – the first Norwegian professor of botany.

This paper commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of the Norwegian botanist Martin Vahl, presenting the known facts about his childhood and youth in Bergen, his study years in Copenhagen and Uppsala (with Linnaeus 1770-1774)) and his scientific activity, mainly as professor in Copenhagen(1786-1804). His main contribution is that of preparing and publishing several fascicles of the prestigious «Flora danica», comprising both flowering plants and cryptogams, particularly fungi and lichens, and describing plants from exotic regions of interest to the Danish Crown (West Indies, West Africa and India (Tranquebar)), altogether 1100 new species. He was also occupied with redescribing the original material of Linnaeus to clarify the numerous misunderstandings that he had seen during travels in Europe, as contemporary botanists mainly relied on the illustrations cited by Linnaeus. However, Vahl died before he had finished this task, leaving his main work, «Enumeratio Plantarum», unfinished. At his death he had a position among European botanists rather like that of his teacher Linnaeus.

Per M. Jørgensen, Botanisk institutt, Universitetet i Bergen, Allégt. 41, N-5017 Bergen.

Blyttia 57(2)
Blyttias hjemmeside
Lagt ut 31.8.1999 JW