Germany


Between 1750-1773 drawings of Georg Dionysius Ehret were presented in Plantae Selectae by Christoph Jacob Trew and Benedict Vogel. The 100 copper engravings were published in 10 parts in Nürnberg, a supplement with 20 more drawings appeared between 1790-1792. There are 3 bromeliads in this work: Ananas comosus, Ananas lucidus (Figure 13) and Bromelia pinguin (Figure 14). Below are some original drawings by Ehret of this latter species, in his sketchbook from 1748 and later as an aquarel, to be used in adapted form for Plantae Selectae. The drawings were made in England where Ehret spent most of his life. All are terrestrial plants, Ananas can be found from Venezuela to Amazonian Brazil and the Bromelia is very widespread, from Mexico to Ecuador.



Also in Nürnberg, Bavarian pharmacist Johannes Zorn published from 1785-1788 the 6 parts in 3 volumes of Dreyhundert auserlesene amerikanische Gewächse nach Linneische Ordnung with 300 copper engravings, mainly copied from N. J. Jacquin's Selectarum stirpium americanarum historia (see chapter on Austria), but on a smaller format. Zorn did this to make the work known to a larger public as there were few copies printed of the Jacquin publication. In vol.2 are some bromeliads, two are presented here below.


Tillandsia flexuosa (left) and Tillandsia polystachia (right), published by J. Zorn


Johann Christoph Wendland was the author of Hortus Herrenhusanus seu Plantae Rariores, describing and illustrating the plants in the Hortus Herrenhausen in Hannover. The 4 fascicles with 24 plates were published in 1798. The only bromeliad is Pitcairnia angustifolia, published as Pitcairnia latifolia (Figure 15). This is a species from the Caribbean Islands.

In 1852 a monthly magazine that would become an outstanding continental European garden journal started in Germany, continuing to 1940. It was published in Erlangen and later in Berlin. The title changed many times but for the first volume it was Gartenflora - Monatschrift für Deutsche und Schweizerische Garten und Blumenkunde herausgegeben von E. Regel. Eduard August von Regel, whose name lives on in the genus Neoregelia, was at the time head-gardener of the university botanical garden in Zürich and would eventually become director of the imperial garden in St. Petersburg. This was later reflected on the title-page of Gartenflora with the added line "und Organ des Russischen Gartenbau-Vereins in St. Petersburg". Regel was editor until 1884; the most well-known botanist succeeding him was Ludwig Wittmack, professor at the Agricultural University in Berlin. In total 2000 coloured plates were published, however it must be said they were not always in good quality, particularly those after 1885. I traced some 55 bromeliads until the year 1905.

Bromelia fastuosa Lindley var. bergemannii (Figure 16) was described by Regel in Gartenflora in 1866 and is currently a synonym of Bromelia binotii, while Bromelia fastuosa sensu Regel (non Lindley) is treated as a synonym of Bromelia antiacantha, both with reference to the same plate 493 (Smith & Downs 1979). The variety bergemannii was named after Bergemann, a head-gardener of a certain mrs. Kolenischeff. Regel claims that the plant originated from Mexico, but Bromelia binotii is a rare species only found in northern Espírito Santo in Brazil (Leme & Marigo 1993). It is remarkable that this terrestrial plant was cultivated in Europe in the 19th century; there is even a second drawing of it published in 1905 in a Dutch illustrated weekly agricultural journal named Floralia (see chapter Netherlands).

Nidularium laurentii in Gartenflora in 1867 (Figure 17) was a new species described by Regel earlier that year, but was to become a synonym, for Brazilian clergyman and botanist Vellozo had it already published as Tillandsia concentrica in 1825 and the current name for this plant is Neoregelia concentrica. In Gartenflora vol.34 (1885) Regel named it Nidularium laurentii var. typicum and described some other varieties: N. laurentii var. elatius (now Neoregelia marmorata) and N. laurentii var. immaculatum (now Neoregelia cruenta). The name of the plant honors Dr. Laurentius of Leipzig. Neoregelia concentrica with its broad pale green leaves, heavily blotched with purple and blackish-brown markings and accentuated by long black spines, grows from sea level to 800 meter altitude in rainforests and also on and near rocks in the state of Rio de Janeiro. From the same year (1867) is the plate of Aechmea weilbachii Didrichsen (Figure 18), also a species from Brazil. The Danish botanist Didrik Ferdinand Didrichsen described Aechmea weilbachii in 1854 from a collection at Corcovado, the rocky mountain in the city of Rio de Janeiro; it is a species endemic to the states of Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro. Regel received the plant from the Belgian nursery of Louis Van Houtte. As a consequence of the new genus Lamprococcus described by Johann Beer in 1856, the new combination Lamprococcus weilbachii had been made by Édouard Morren in La Belgique Horticole in 1861. Morren had his plant from the firm of Jacob-Makoy in Belgium.

Towards the end of the 19th century the horticultural magazines started to give descriptions and illustrations of cultivars. For example, in 1892 Wittmack gave a description of a hybrid made by Quintus and labeled it Vriesea Obliqua, an obvious name when looking at the plate (Figure 19). The horizontal position of the spike is not an abnormality of a single plant but a character developing with all seedlings. Quintus didn't remember how the cross was made but thought that the cultivar Vriesea Retroflexa was involved, a hybrid of V. scalaris and V. psittacina. Candidates for the second parent are V. Duvaliana, V. amethystina and V. carinata.

In Germany earlier that century Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach, the director of the botanical garden in Dresden, published Iconographia botanica exotica in 1827-1830, with text in Latin and illustrated with 250 copper engravings of exotic plants. It contains two plates of Aechmea aquilega (one of them Figure 20), a species occurring from Venezuela to Brazil. The plates were by Reichenbach incorrectly labeled Bromelia paniculigera Swartz (that one is a synonym now of Aechmea paniculigera). The copy of the work that I have seen was monochrome, but there exist copies in colour. It was published along with the 10 volumes of Iconographia botanica seu plantae criticae (1823-1832); in there are 1000 engravings of rare and less known plants, but no bromeliads. From 1834-1846 Reichenbach published in cooperation with "gardenfriends" in Brussels the 5 volumes of Flora exotica with 360 chromolithographs (not seen by me). All his publications were issued in Leipzig and most of the drawings were made by Reichenbach himself.

Continuing my quest for drawings of bromeliads in 19th century Germany I came across several botanists having "Friedrich" as one of their first names. Professor of philosophy, botany and zoology in Leipzig was Eduard Friedrich Poeppig who traveled between 1827 and 1832 in Chile, Peru and Amazonian Brazil from where he send thousands of plants to the herbaria of Leipzig, Berlin and Vienna. Descriptions and illustrations of the plants were published at Leipzig by Poeppig and Austrian botanist Stephan Endlicher in 1835, 1838 and 1845 in a work titled Nova Genera ac Species Plantarum, 3 volumes with 100 copper engravings each. The drawings were made by Poeppig and among the plates were 4 bromeliads, including several new species. There are monochrome and coloured copies of it. One plate has been printed in the BSI Journal illustrating an article with the biography of Poeppig (Weber 1981). Reproduced here is Pourretia alpestris (Figure 21), a species already described by Poeppig several years earlier. It grows to 1.5 meter in height on dry slopes in Chile.

Heinrich Friedrich Link, Friedrich Klotzsch and Friedrich Otto were the authors of a very attractive work in 8 parts, bound in 2 volumes dated 1841 and 1844 and published in Berlin: Icones Plantarum Rariorum Horti Regii Botanici Berolinensis. Link was the successor of Karl Ludwig Willdenow as professor of botany in Berlin. Klotzsch and Otto were also botanists from Berlin. This publication contained 48 handcoloured lithographed plates of high quality - drawing and lithography by Carl Friedrich Schmidt - from rare plants in the royal botanic garden of Berlin. That garden was situated in the Potsdamer Strasse and had at the time with 14000 plant species the biggest collection in Europe.

Puya altensteinii (Figure 22) was a newly described bromeliad collected by M. Moritz and named after secretary of state von Altenstein; Charles Lemaire later made the new combination Pitcairnia altensteinii. This species is endemic to northern central Venezuela where it grows terrestrially in moist cloud forests at altitudes from 1000-1900 m. Large quantities of this plant can be found at some point along the road from Maracay to Choroní in National Park Henri Pittier. The larger variety Puya altensteinii var. gigantea described by W. Hooker some years later is known only from the type collection and is probably a luxuriant cultivar according to Lyman Smith (Smith & Downs 1974), who described in 1966 a variety with an inflorescence smaller in size: Pitcairnia altensteinii var. minor.

The other bromeliads in Icones Plantarum Rariorum were Pitcairnia ringens, also a new species, Acanthostachys strobilacea and Tillandsia vitellina (Figure 23), the latter a plant imported from Venezuela by E. Otto (not the same as Friedrich Otto) in 1840. The colour of the flower of this Tillandsia was described as that resembling the marsh marigold, the latin word "vitellinus" meaning egg-yolk yellow (Stearn 2004). As so often happened, the new species bit the dust; it turned out to be the same as Tillandsia nutans Swartz from 1788 and is currently known as Catopsis nutans (Swartz) Grisebach.

Friedrich Otto and Albert Dietrich were the publishers of Allgemeine Gartenzeitung in Berlin, volume 1-24 during 1833-1856, there were no plates in here. It got continuation however in Berliner Allgemeine Gartenzeitung vol. 25-26 in 1857-1858 by Karl Heinrich Emil Koch, this journal had some colorplates including two Billbergia's.

A very ambitious publication came from David Nathanael Friedrich Dietrich, who because of his high graphic productivity was called the "polygraph of Jena". From 1831-1854 he made text and plates for the 15 volumes of Flora Universalis in colorierten Abbildungen. It contained 4760 plates (some bromeliads) and was followed in 1849 and 1861 by two more series with 110 plates.
The same Dietrich was also the author of Zeitschrift für Gärtner, Botaniker und Blumenfreunde, this was published during 1840-1850 and when complete bound in 5 volumes. In total there were 264 colored plates, each with two figures on it. They were copied from other publications, like the one here below (right) from Edwards Botanical Register.
The bromeliads are Tillandsia compressa, Aechmea purpureorosea and Tillandsia aeranthos on plate 305 of Flora Universalis in colorierten Abbildungen (left) and Pitcairnia heterophylla and Puya coerulea on plate 40 of Zeitschrift für Gärtner, Botaniker und Blumenfreunde vol.1 (right, courtesy Koninklijke Maatschappij voor Landbouw en Plantkunde, Gent).

Of greater importance is the treatment of the Bromeliaceae by Carl Mez in Flora Brasiliensis from 1891-1894. The complete flora (1840-1906) was edited by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, later August Wilhelm Eichler and Ignatz Urban, and was published in 40 volumes in 130 parts with a total of 20733 pages and 3811 monochrome plates. In volume 3(3) the 405 species of Brazilian bromeliads were described, illustrated with 64 plates. This work has been reprinted by Cramer Verlag in Germany. That same publisher reprinted Nova Genera ac Species Plantarum and also the first 3 volumes of Flora Peruviana et Chilensis (annotated by F. Stafleu), by H. Ruiz and J. A. Pavón originally published from 1798-1802 in Madrid. From Flora Brasiliensis is the plate (Figure 24) with Orthophytum glabra and Orthophytum leprosa, newly described in the genus Prantleia at the time. These species grow mainly on rocky surfaces in Minas Gerais, Brazil.


Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius: Flora Brasiliensis (1840-1906) vol.1 pt.1 plate 34 (l.) and Historia naturalis palmarum (1823-1853) vol.2 plate 45 (r.).


Bromeliads with Tillandsia aeranthos in Adalbert Schnizlein: Iconographia familiarum naturalium regni vegetabilis vol.1 plate 65 (Bonn, 1843-1846).



Literature cited:

Leme, E.M.C. & L.C. Marigo (1993). Bromeliads in the Brazilian wilderness. Marigo Comunicação Visual, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Smith, L.B. & R.J. Downs (1974). Flora Neotropica Monograph No.14 Part 1, Pitcairnioideae. Hafner Press, New York.
Smith, L.B. & R.J. Downs (1979). Flora Neotropica Monograph No.14 Part 3, Bromelioideae. The New York Botanical Garden.
Stearn, W.T. (2004, first paperback edition). Botanical Latin. David & Charles, Newton Abbot, Devon UK; Timber Press Inc., Portland, Oregon USA.
Weber, W. (1981). An early essay by Poeppig on "Epiphytism". Journal of the Bromeliad Society vol. 31(6):249-254.




Figure 13. Ananas lucidus Miller. Published as Ananas folio vix serrato. Drawing G. Ehret, engraving J. Haid, Plantae Selectae plate 3 (1750-1773).
Figure 14. Bromelia pinguin Linnaeus. Published as Ananas pinguin Trew. Drawing G. Ehret, engraving J. Haid, Plantae Selectae plate 51 (1750-1773).
Figure 15. Pitcairnia angustifolia Solander in Aiton. Published as Pitcairnia latifolia Aiton. Drawing and engraving J.C. Wendland, Hortus Herrenhusanus plate 3 (1798).
Figure 16. Bromelia binotii E. Morren ex Mez. Published as Bromelia fastuosa var. bergemannii Regel. Gartenflora vol. 15 plate 493 (1866).
Figure 17. Neoregelia concentrica (Vellozo) L. B. Smith. Published as Nidularium laurentii Regel. Gartenflora vol.16 plate 529 (1867).
Figure 18. Aechmea weilbachii Didrichsen. Published as Lamprococcus weilbachii (Didrichsen) E. Morren. Gartenflora vol.16 plate 539 (1867).
Figure 19. Vriesea cv. Obliqua. Gartenflora vol.41 plate 1369 (1892).
Figure 20. Aechmea aquilega (Salisbury) Grisebach. Published as Bromelia paniculigera Swartz. Engraving A. Harzer, Iconographia botanica exotica plate 239 (1827-1830).
Figure 21. Puya alpestris (Poeppig) Gay. Published as Pourretia alpestris Poeppig. Drawing E. Poeppig, engraving A. Bogner, Nova Genera ac Species Plantarum vol.2 plate 156 (1838).
Figure 22. Pitcairnia altensteinii (Link, Klotzsch & Otto) Lemaire. Published as Puya altensteinii Link, Klotzsch & Otto. Drawing and lithography C.F. Schmidt, Pl. Rar. Hort. Berol. vol.1 plate 1 (1841).
Figure 23. Catopsis nutans (Swartz) Grisebach. Published as Tillandsia vitellina Link, Klotzsch & Otto. Drawing and lithography C.F. Schmidt, Pl. Rar. Hort. Berol. vol.2 plate 40 (1844).
Figure 24. Orthophytum glabrum (Mez) Mez and Orthophytum leprosum (Mez) Mez. Published as Prantlei glabra Mez and Prantlei leprosa Mez. Drawing and lithography , Flora Brasiliensis vol.3(3) plate 58 (1891).


Below: Bromeliads on woodcuts by Franz Keller-Leuzinger: Vom Amazonas zu Madeira (The Amazon and Madeira Rivers), Stuttgart (London)1874