Camillo Karl Schneider (7 April 1876 – 5 January 1951) 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

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...

. A farmer's son, he was born at Gröppendorf, in the

Kingdom of Saxony The Kingdom of Saxony () was a German monarchy in Central Europe between 1806 and 1918, the successor of the Electorate of Saxony. It joined the Confederation of the Rhine after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, later joining the German ...

, and worked as a gardener at

Zeitz Zeitz (; , ) is a town in the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river White Elster, in the triangle of the federal states Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Saxony. History First a Slavic pagan settlem ...

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and

Greifswald Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg. In 2021 it surpa ...

. Returning to Berlin to work in the City Parks Department, he assisted in editorial work for the periodical ''Gartenwelt'', which led to his employ as a landscape assistant in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

and Berlin. In 1900, he moved to

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. ...

, where he practiced as a freelance architect and writer, travelling extensively through Europe. In 1904 he published his first books, including the beginning of his tome ''Illustrated Handbook of Broad-leaved Trees'', which he completed in 1912. However, the manuscript of what should have been his ''

magnum opus A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

'', a study of the genus ''

Berberis ''Berberis'' (), commonly known as barberry, is a large genus of deciduous and evergreen shrubs from tall, found throughout temperate and subtropical regions of the world (apart from Australia). Species diversity is greatest in South America a ...

'', was destroyed in a bombing raid on Berlin in 1943. In 1907 he created the specimen series ''Plantae hungaricae 1907'' distributed as an

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae are numbered collections of dried herbarium Biological specimen, spe ...

-like series. In 1913, supported by the Austro-Hungarian Dendrological Society, he ventured to China to collect plants and seeds for the botanical garden at Pruhonitz. He left China via

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

in 1915, travelling to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

where he worked at the

Arnold Arboretum The Arnold Arboretum is a botanical research institution and free public park affiliated with Harvard University and located in the Jamaica Plain and Roslindale, Massachusetts, Roslindale neighborhoods of Boston. Established in 1872, it is the ...

alongside Sargent,

Rehder Rehder is a German surname. Notable people with this surname include the following: * Alfred Rehder (1863–1949), German-American botanist and Harvard professor * Elke Rehder (born 1953), German artist * Harald Alfred Rehder (1907–1996), Americ ...

and Wilson until 1919, when he returned to Vienna. Two years later, he moved to Berlin to work on the new periodical ''Gartenschönheit'', which survived until 1942. On its demise, he worked for its successor, ''Gartenbau im Reich'', although he also continued to practice as a landscape architect, redesigning gardens and parks in the new reich. Impoverished by the consequences of the war, he was obliged to continue working in old age; Schneider's last book ''Hecken im Garten'' (''Hedges in the Garden'') was published in 1950, the year before his death in Berlin. His brother was Karl Camillo Schneider (born 28 August 1867 in

Pomßen Pomßen is a village some 20 kilometres from Leipzig, Germany. Since 1994, it is part of the municipality of Parthenstein. There is a fortified church A fortified church is a church that is built to serve a defensive role in times of war. Such ...

, Germany; † March 1943 in

Oleśnica Oleśnica (; ) is a town in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland, within the Wrocław metropolitan area. It is the administrative seat of Oleśnica County and also of the rural district of Gmina Oleśnica, although it is not part ...

, Poland), who was a German-Austrian zoologist, philosopher, writer, parapsychologist and painter. He was in correspondence with

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

.Albert Einstein: The collected papers of Albert Einstein . Ed .: Joh J. Stachel et al. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ 1987, pp. 496, 676

Works

* Schneider, C. K. 1905. ''Illustriertes Handbuch der Laubholzkunde. Charakteristik der in Mitteleuropa heimischen im Freien angepflanzten angiospermen Gehölz-Arten und Formen mit Ausschluss der Bambuseen und Kakteen''. Verlag von Gustav Fischer, Jena. Volume 1, pp 493–494 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/5886 * Schneider, C. K. 1905.
Die Gattung "Berberis". Vorarbeiten für eine Monographie.
' // Bull.Herb.Boissier.Sér.2. Genève. Vol. v. p. 33 sq

References

*Stearn, W. T. (1951). ''Gardeners Chronicle'', 1951, 129, 32. 1876 births 1951 deaths People from Wermsdorf People from the Kingdom of Saxony 20th-century German botanists German landscape architects Botanists active in China Botanists with author abbreviations Arnold Arboretum {{Germany-botanist-stub