Karl Julius Perleb (20 June 1794,

Konstanz Konstanz ( , , , ), traditionally known as Constance in English, is a college town, university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the Baden-Württemberg state of south Germany. The city ho ...

– 8 June 1845,

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

) (also known as Carl Julius Perleb) was a German

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

Life

From 1809 to 1811, Karl Julius Perleb studied at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

and earned a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and in 1815 a degree in

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

. He lived in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

for a brief period of time. In 1818 he returned to the University of Freiburg and began a

post-doctoral A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary academ ...

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

ship. He remained at the university for the remainder of his life. He became an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

in 1821, and in 1823 he became a

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

. From 1828 to 1845 he served as director of the Freiburg Botanical Garden. In 1838 he was appointed

prorector Academic rank (also scientific rank) is the rank of a scientist or teacher in a college, high school, university or research establishment. The academic ranks indicate relative importance and power of individuals in academia. The academic ran ...

at Freiburg University. He left his library and

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

to the university, together with money for its administration and for travel grants for young scholars of the natural sciences.ADB:Perleb, Karl Julius
at

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB; ) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences between 1875 and 1912 in 56 volumes, printed in Lei ...

Work

Perleb was an author of numerous scientific publications and was a friend of Freiburg historian Heinrich Schreiber. He worked on the natural method of the

classification of plants Plant taxonomy is the science that finds, identifies, describes, classifies, and names plants. It is one of the main branches of taxonomy (the science that finds, describes, classifies, and names living things). Plant taxonomy is closely allied ...

. In 1818 he translated

de Candolle Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss people, Swiss botany, botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple ...

's ''Essai sur les propriétés médicales des plantes comparées avec leur classification naturelle'' into German as ''Versuch über die Arzneikräfte der Pflanzen, verglichen mit den äußeren Formen und der natürlichen Classeneintheilung derselben'', with additions and comments. This was followed in 1826 by his ''Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte des Pflanzenreichs'' in which he developed his own classification, based on that of de Candolle, but further developing the idea of a hierarchy in which

orders Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * H ...

were introduced as a rank between

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

and classes. He divided de Candolle's Calyciflorae into those with either fused of free

petals Petals are modified leaves that form an inner whorl surrounding the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly coloured or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''coroll ...

and increased his number of subclasses by one. He then developed a key to the diagnostic ranks, updated from the ''Lehrbuch'', his ''Clavis classium, ordinum et familiarum atque index generum regni vegetabilis'' (1838), following the method of

Ray Ray or RAY may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), the bony or horny spine on ray-finned fish Science and mathematics * Half-line (geometry) or ray, half of a line split at an ...

. In his system, there were 9 classes, 48 orders and 330 families. A second part of the ''Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte'', the ''Lehrbuch der Zoologie'' was published in 1831. He also published an account of the botanical garden at Freiburg, ''De horto botanico Friburgensi'' (1829)

List of selected publications

''Sources''Biodiversity Heritage Library
published works * ''Versuch über die Arzneikräfte der Pflanzen, verglichen mit den äußeren Formen und der natürlichen Classeneintheilung derselben'' (1818) * ''Conspectus methodi plantarum naturalis in usum auditorum typis exscribi curavit'' (1822) * * ''De Horto Botanico Friburgensi'' (1829)
''Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte: Lehrbuch der Zoologie''
(1831–1835) *

Legacy

The botanical genus ''Perlebia'' (synonym ''

Bauhinia ''Bauhinia'' () is a large genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Cercidoideae and tribe Bauhinieae, in the large flowering plant family Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution. The genus was named after the Bauhin brothers Gaspard and ...

'') is named in his honor.

References

Bibliography

*
Bibliography of Karl Julius Perleb, Bayerische StaatsBibliothek

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perleb, Karl Julius 1794 births 1845 deaths Naturalists from the Kingdom of Prussia 19th-century German naturalists 19th-century German botanists Academic staff of the University of Freiburg University of Freiburg alumni People from Konstanz Botanists from the Kingdom of Prussia