30 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 
John Jacob Bernhardi was born in 1774 and died in 1850. 
He was one of the leading botanists of his time and pro- 
fessor of botany at the University in Erfurt, the environs of 
which have been long renowned as a center for the cultiva- 
tion of rare and choice plants. Professor Bernhardi was for 
some years editor of the Allgemeines deutsches Garten-Mag- 
azim and also of the Thuringische Garten Zeitung, two 
garden magazines which did much to popularize the study 
of be throughout central and southern an It is 
evident that these connections brought him in close touch 
with the leading botanical gardens in — as well as 
with the saiiaat botanical activities of the day, since we 
find in the Bernhardi herbarium many specimens of plants 
which were grown from 1790 to 1830 in several of the con- 
tinental gardens, particularly in Géttingen, Berlin, Halle, 
Hamburg, Hanover, Madrid, etc. Many of these plants 
were of exotic origin, having been raised from seeds collected 
in foreign countries. 
Tt will be recalled that the latter part of the eighteenth 
and the early part of the nineteenth century was a period 
of exceptional activity in scientific exploration and that 
humerous expeditions were made to various parts of the 
world, especially to India, South Africa, Australia, Central 
and South America, China, and the Philippine Islands. 
Even missionaries to foreign fields not infrequently either 
sent or brought home with them strange plants from the 
country in which their missionary work was located. 
That Bernhardi was interested in these foreign botanical 
explorations is shown by the fact that in his herbarium are 
to be found thousands of plants which were collected in 
various parts of Europe and in remote parts of the world. 
A few of the important individual collections that are pre- 
ecldi in the Bernhardi herbarium may be tabulated as fol- 
ows: 
Approximate 
date of Collector Country 
collection 
1772-1776 .:.~. Tete as South Africa 
SPO jc2n ee rT ey eer Mexico, South America, and 
Philippine Islands 
LIO0 eee kat OREN ees Sorc chee India 
ka eee ee BIO sks es eee Portugal 
ISIS. eG Martius 3.0 a ten Brazil 
0 ee Below: iss mare ees razil 
BBG iis oe aoe DOI os cies a ns Fk Italy 
LS24-1887 . DORR i cia en West Indies and Chili 
1820.3 F3  Wallich oo yo ee ee India 
§OOU Ss cs Salman a eae Brazil 
