Important collections of this outstanding German botanists are
kept at the Herbarium of Moscow University.
Jacob Friedrich Ehrhart was a pupil and friend of Linnaeus, and
a friend of Carl Linnaeus filius (1741-1783), who was the same age
as Ehrhart. Born in Switzerland, by 1765 Ehrhart was studying pharmacy
in Nurnberg. After some years in Erlangen (Germany), where he began
collecting plants for his herbarium, Ehrhart moved to Uppsala University.
During three years there (1773-1775), Ehrhart studied botany and
collected plants under the guidance of Linnaeus. After 1775 he returned
to Germany and worked in Hannover.
Ehrhart was one of the first botanists to publish plant exsiccatae
(i.e. prepared collections, in several or many sets, of precisely
identified and named dried plants with printed labels, to be distributed
between various botanists and/or institutions). Starting in 1780,
he published seven series of exsiccatae comprising about 1620 plant
species. Five of the seven of Ehrhart's series (ser. 1, 2, 4, 5,
7) are kept now in the Herbarium of Moscow University (MW) (with
a few specimens missing). The exsiccatae contain type material for
a number of Ehrhart's names. Many specimens were collected in the
vicinity of Uppsala and in the Uppsala Botanic Garden and perhaps
were compared with specimens now in the Linnaean collections or
perhaps even examined by Linnaeus himself.
The herbarium of Moscow University (MW) possesses also Ehrhart's
General Collection ("Hortus siccus") which contains material
of about 3300 plant species and came from four different sources.
Hoffmann (1824) published a catalogue of Ehrhart's General Collection
in which he introduced a numbering system following Murray's edition
of "Systema Vegetabilium" (Linnaeus 1774). It is important
to note that numbers were attributed to species, not to particular
herbarium sheets. The numbering is discontinuous because a number
of species included in "Systema Vegetabilium" are absent
from Ehrhart's collection.
The Ehrhart's herbarium contains several specimens received (directly
or indirectly) from his famous teacher, C. Linnaeus. High quality
digital images of these specimens are included in the CD-ROM which
will be published soon.
Ehrhart was commemorated in the genera Ehrharta Thunb. (1779,
nom. cons.; Poaceae) and Ehrhartia Wiggers (1780, = Leersia
Sw.; Poaceae) and in 10 species:
- Bromus ehrharti Gaud.
- Carex ehrhartiana Hoppe ex Boott
- Dactylophyllum ehrharti Spenn.
- Fritillaria ehrharti Boiss., Orph. et Turrill
- Mentha ehrhartiana Lej. et Court.
- Poa ehrhartiana E. Mey.
- Salix ehrhartiana E. Mey.
- Scrophularia ehrharti Stevens
- Silene ehrhartiana Soo
- Syrenia ehrhartiana Andrz. ex Besser
D.D. Sokoloff, S.A. Balandin
Referenses:
Britten, J. (1922). Friedrich Ehrhart and his exsiccatae.
Journ. Bot. British and Foreign [London] 60: 318-327.
Ehrhart, F. (1780-1785). Phytophylacium Ehrhartianum continens
plantas quas in locis earum natalibus collegit et exsiccavit Fridericus
Ehrhart, Helveto-Bernas. [Ser. 1.] Dec. I-X. Hannoverae.
Ehrhart, F. (1785-1793). Plantae Cryptogamae Linn. quas in locis
earum natalibus collegit Fr. Ehrhart. [Ser. 2.] Dec. I-XXXII.
Hannoverae.
Ehrhart, F. (1785-1792). Plantae officinalis quas in usum Studiosorum
Medicinae, Chirurgiae et Pharmaceutices collegit et exsiccavit Fr.
Ehrhart. [Ser. 3.] Hannoverae.
Ehrhart, F. (1787-1793). Herbae Linn. quas in locis earum natalibus
collegit et exsiccavit Fr. Ehrhart. [Ser. 4.] Dec. I-XVI. Hannoverae.
Ehrhart, F. (1787-1793). Arbores, Frutices et Suffrutices Linn.
quas in usum Dendrophilorum collegit et exsiccavit Fr. Ehrhart.
[Ser. 5.] Dec. I-XVI. Hannoverae.
Ehrhart, F. (1790). Calamariae Gramina et Tripetaloideae Linn.
quas in usum Botanophilorum collegit et exsiccavit Fr. Ehrhart.
[Ser. 6.] Hannoverae.
Ehrhart, F. (1792-1793). Plantae selectae Hortuli proprii, quas
in usum botanophilorum exsiccavit Fr. Ehrhart. [Ser. 7.] Dec.
I-XVI. Hannoverae.
Hoffmann, G.F. (1824). Herbarium vivum, sive collectio plantarum
siccarum, Caesareae Universitatis Mosquensis. Pars prima, continens
plantarum copiam sub ipso Linnaeo Upsaliae ann. 1775 collectam,
et usque ad ann. 1794 continuatum a Fr. Ehrhart cel. Botanico Hannoverano,
discipulo et amico Linnaei. Mosquae.
Karavaev, M.N. (1963). On the herbarium of Fr. Ehrhart in Moscow
University. Bull. Mosc. Soc. Nat. Biol. Ser. 68 (6): 167.
(In Russian.).
Karavaev, M.N. et Barsukova, A.V. (1968). Friedrich Ehrhart's botanical
collections in the Moscow University. Bull. Mosc. Soc. Nat. Biol.
Ser. 73 (3): 137-139. (In Russian.).
Karavaev, M.N. et Gubanov, I.A. (1981). Reliquiae of Karl Linne
in the Herbarium of the Moscow University. Bull. Mosc. Soc. Nat.
Biol. Ser. 86 (3): 79-85. (In Russian.).
Pavlov, V.N. (1978). History of origin and development of the Herbarium.
In: V.N Pavlov, I.A. Gubanov, A.V. Barsukova et T.V. Bagdasarova
Herbarium Universitatis Mosquensis (MW): 5-22. Moscow. (In
Russian.).
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