JOSEPH GOTTLIEB KOLREUTER 203 



SUPPLEMENT TO THE INTRODUCTION. 



I. Joseph Gottlieb Kolreuter. 



I AM here able to supplement and correct the brief account of Kolreuter that 

 I quoted at the beginning of the Introduction (p. i) from Sachs's ' History of 

 Botany' (Eng. Ed., p. 406, note), for Dr. J. Behrens of Karlsruhe has kindly 

 placed at my disposal his own copy of his work 'Joseph Gottlieb Kolreuter, ein 

 Karlsruher Botaniker ' (Karlsruhe, 1894). Kolreuter was born on April 27, 1733, 

 and was the eldest son of Johann Konrad Kolreuter, an apothecary at Sulz on the 

 Neckar. Though nothing is known with regard to his early years it may be assumed 

 that — encouraged by his father — he acquired a knowledge of the flora and fauna 

 of his own neighbourhood when he was still a boy. In 1748 he went to the 

 University of Tubingen, and in 1753 to Strassburg, returning in 1754 to Tubingen, 

 where in the following year he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine, the title of 

 his thesis being — 'Dissertatio inauguralis medica de insectis coleopteris necnon de 

 plantis quibusdam rarioribus (cum icone).' 



Soon after he graduated (1756) Kolreuter went as an assistant in Natural 

 History to the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, where he made his 

 first (fruitless) experiments on hybridization (1759), employing Hibiscus trionum 

 and Pentapetes phoenicea, Hibiscus trionum and Gossypium herbaceum, Atropa 

 physaloides and Physalis Alkekengi. While he was in St. Petersburg his 'Vor- 

 laufige Nachricht von einigen das Geschlecht der Pflanzen betreffenden Versuchen 

 und Beobachtungen ' (i.e. Preliminary Communication on some Researches and Ex- 

 periments regarding the Sex of Plants) appeared, and he also published a number 

 of zoological memoirs. 



In the summer of 1761 Kolreuter returned to his home. In the course of the 

 return journey he visited Berlin in the month of August, and there became acquainted 

 with Johann Gottlieb Gleditsch, who had succeeded some ten years before in effecting 

 the artificial fertilization of Chamaerops humilis. From Berlin Kolreuter went for 

 a few weeks to Leipzig, and coming into contact with the botanists there, especially 

 Christian Gottlieb Ludwig, received a new stimulus to research, and after his return 

 to Sulz continued his experiments. In 1762 Kolreuter settled at Calw in Wurtem- 

 berg, where he still carried on investigations on the sexual relations of plants. 

 While the preface to his ' Vorlaufige Nachricht ' was written in Leipzig, and 

 published by Gleditsch in Leipzig at the instigation of his friends there, the 

 ' Fortsetzung ' (i. e. Supplement), and also the ' Zweite Fortsetzung ' (i. e. Second 

 Supplement) are essentially the fruit of his labours in Sulz and Calw. 



In 1763 Kolreuter was called to Karlsruhe by the margrave Karl Friedrich of 

 Baden-Durlach, as overseer and director of ihe Royal Gardens, and Professor of 

 Natural History. In the beginning of 1764 he assumed these offices, and the 'Dritte 

 Fortsetzung der vorlaufigen Nachricht' (i.e. Third Supplement to the Preliminary 

 Communication) appeared as the result of his first two years' work in Karlsruhe. 



