Vol. 28 



No. 11 



BULLETIN 



OF THE 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 



/ 



NOVEMBER 1901 



Biographical Sketch of Dr. Charles Mohr 



By Ei gene A. Smith 



Bom 28 Dec. 1824, in Esslingem, Wurttemberg, the early 

 years of Charles Mohr were spent there and at the Cloister 

 Denkendorf where his father owned a manufactory of chemicals. 

 His taste for natural history was first aroused by the reading of 

 the famous Bridgewater Treatises, especially that of Buckland, 

 and association with an uncle who was a pensioned forester of the 

 district, kindled in him early that enthusiasm for botany and for- 

 estry which was to play so important a rol.e in his after life. At 

 the age of eighteen he entered the polytechnic school at Stutt- 

 gart, where he remained about four years, improving the oppor- 

 tunity for the study of exotic plants afforded by the royal gardens, 

 and making valuable acquaintances among scientific men. Here 

 he met with Aug. Kappler, the well-known collector of natural 

 history specimens from South America, and in due course of time 

 Mohr was invited to go on an expedition to the head waters of 

 the Surinam in Dutch Guiana as collector, especially of plants. 

 At Paramaribo, and on the Surinam and Maroni rivers, these col- 

 lections were prosecuted, not without much suffering from fever 

 and other troubles due to exposure, which, in the case of young 

 Mohr, compelled him, after a seven months' stay in Guiana, to 

 give up the work and to return to Europe, where he arrived early 



in 



1847. 

 The revolution of 1848 which caused the derangement and 



breaking up of so many of the business affairs in Germany, led to 



the emigration to America of Charles Mohr and his elder brother. 



[Issued 25 November] 599 



