Viktor Ferdinand Brotherus (28 October 1849 – 9 February 1929) was a Finnish botanist who studied the
moss
Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...
Sund, Åland
Sund is a municipalities of Finland, municipality of Åland. It is an Autonomous area, autonomous territory of Finland, and one of the official 27 national landscapes of Finland.
The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of w ...
while Finland was under Russian rule. He had 13 brothers and sisters of whom six died young.
He took his
Candidate of Philosophy
Candidate of Philosophy can refer to the US degree or status of Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil. or Ph.C.) granted to Ph.D. students who have been accepted as candidates for that degree, or (as a direct translation) to degrees or former degrees at ...
degree in 1870 at Imperial Alexander University (later University of Helsinki) and began medical studies but gave them up after getting
blood poisoning
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells.
Blood is compo ...
and became a teacher. He married Aline Mathilde Sandman (born 1853), daughter of Jonas Sandman, a Justice in the Court of Appeal, in 1879 at the age of thirty, and had four children. She died in 1894. He did not remarry.
He taught natural history and mathematics at the Swedish girls' school in
Vaasa
Vaasa (; , ), formerly (1855-1917) known as Nikolaistad (; ),riginal in Finnish"
Biological works
His earliest major work was on the moss flora of the
Kola Peninsula
The Kola Peninsula (; ) is a peninsula in the extreme northwest of Russia, and one of the largest peninsulas of Europe. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely inside the Arctic Circle and is border ...
(Brotherus and T. Saelan. 1890. Musci Lapponiae Kolaensis. ''Acta Societas pro Flora et Flora Fennica'' 6: 1-100.) His other major European work was '' Die Laubmoose Fennoskandias'' (1923). He also studied, through collections sent to him by botanists abroad, the mosses of
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...
,
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
,
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
, and
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
Bryales
Bryales is an order of mosses.
Taxonomy
The order Bryales includes the following five families:
* Bryaceae
* Leptostomataceae
* Mniaceae
* Phyllodrepaniaceae
* Pulchrinodaceae
The order used to be defined broadly to include the ...
, and continued to the second edition.
By invitation of Heinrich von Handel-Mazzetti, he authored the section on Chinese mosses in the '' Symbolae Sinicae''. His collaborations and correspondence with other bryologists of the day were extensive. In particular, he was well acquainted with
Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer (born Majer Fleischer ; July 19, 1883 – September 11, 1972) was an American animator and studio owner. Born in Kraków, in Austrian Poland, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he became a pioneer in the development ...
, and used Fleischer's new 'natural' system of moss classification, which was outlined in the latter's '' Die Musci der Flora von Buitenzorg,'' in his own systematic description of the mosses in '' Die Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien''. Brotherus's unique achievement was his synthesis of moss taxonomy for the world-wide distribution, and his mastery of the identification and classification of the estimated 20 000 species of mosses then known to him.
Miscellaneous
Brotherus's personal
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 ...
(comprising 120 000 moss specimens), in particular the extra-European collections, was purchased by the
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...
herbarium (H) and is maintained as a separate collection (H-BR).
He published several exsiccatae, among others the series ''Bryotheca Fennica'' and ''Musci Turkestanici''.Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2024 ''IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae''. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany. The specimens are deposited in major herbaria around the world (e.g. B, BM, FH, K, L, M, P).Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2024 ''IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae''. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany. The standard botanical abbreviation of his name is Broth. The journal ''Bryobrothera'', published by the Finnish Bryological Society, is named in his honor. Numerous genera and species of mosses, e.g. ''Brothera'', ''Brotherella'', ''Brotherobryum'', are named for him. Members of his family (see Brotherus) are still resident in Finland today.