Darwin Correspondence Project

German physician, botanist, and zoologist. Studied medicine at Göttingen and Marburg and practised from 1826 until 1831, when he turned to writing on botanical and zoological topics. Travelled to Cuba, 1838–9. In zoology, worked almost exclusively on conchology; in botany, worked on problems of synonymy in taxonomy, especially in the cactus family. His Nomenclator botanicus gave author and publication details, clarifying synonymy greatly.