(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 1: Cyclopaedia of collectors)

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 8: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Supplement II)

Born: 1811, Middelburg, Z., Holland. Died: Jan. (or ? June) 3, 1843, Ambon, Moluccas.

career:

Zoologist who took his medical degree in 1836;¹ in 1838 elected member of the ‘Natuurkundige Commissie’ (Commission for Natural Sciences) for the D.E.I., in which region he made especially ornithological collections. In Sept. 1839 he temporarily filled the post of Director of the Natural History Museum at Batavia; in the beginning of 1840 he set out to Celebes in company with H. von Gaffron.

Several plants were named after him.

Collecting localities:²

W. Java: arrival at Batavia (Dec. 14, 1838); settling at Buitenzorg, making excursions in the neighbourhood, climbing G. Pangrango with Junghuhn (Apr. 1, 1839). He is cited in literature as the collector of a plant on P. Dwars in den Weg (Sunda Strait) (April 18..).³-NE. Celebes: arrival at Menado (March 22, 1840); Tondano (Apr. 15), making headquarters there; for a year exploring the whole of the Minahassa, visiting: G. Klabat, crater of the Batoe Angoes, Li(e)koepang (Sept. 8-9), pr. Belang (Oct.), Amoerang (Dec.), G. Sopoetan (Dec.), Tomahon (Febr. 1841); during an intended trip to Gorontalo, he was forced by unfavourable wind to land in the vicinity of Ternate (June 19), in which island he was ill for some months, in the meantime sending his hunters some times to Halmahera; ascent of the Peak of Ternate; sailing from Ternate (mid-Sept.) to NE. Celebes again, making headquarters at Gorontalo; Gulf of Tomini; Apr. 14, 1842 sailing to Ambon (collecting at Laba etc.) from where in Aug. on a tour of inspection with the Governor of the Moluccas to the Banda Islands; to Ceram (end of the year, e.g. at Piroe), from where transported to Ambon on account of illness. It appears that he visited the Lesser Sunda Islands too, viz Sumbawa (Bima) in 1842.⁴

collections:

Several hundreds of plants in Herb. Leiden [L] (incl. some material in alcohol); dupl. e.g. in Kew [K] and Herb. Bog. [BO].

Plants described in the works of Blume and Miquel. Miquel was wrong in ascribing a plant from P. Dwars in de Weg as collected by Forsten (cf. Cycl. Fl. Mal. 1, 1, 1950, p. 179 sub LIT. 3). Rightly the plant was collected by J.C. van Hasselt and the original label of the collection was one of Kuhl & van Hasselt.

A MS. narrative of his travels was found among the personal estate of Schwaner (see there); present location unknown.

literature:

(1) E.A. Forsten: ‘De Cedrela febrifuga’ (Diss. hot. pharm. medica, Lugd. Bat. 1836).

(2) ‘Berigten betreffende de natuurkundige reis door de Res. Menado, Amboina en Makassar’ (De Kopiist 1, 1842, p. 681 and 2nd ed. p. 102).

cf. H.J. Veth: ‘Overzicht van hetgeen ... gedaan is voor de kennis der fauna van Ned. Indië’ (Leiden 1879) p. 94-99 and 107.

(3) Viz Tetraplasandra paucidens Miq. (cf. Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat. 1, 1863, p. 4).

(4) cf. Rensch in Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berl. 17, 1931, p. 454.

biographical data:

Backer, Verkl. Woordenb., 1936; Ned. Kruidk. Arch. 52, 1942, p. 385.

photo gallery: