Carl Bernhard von Trinius (6 March 1778,

Eisleben Eisleben is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is famous as both the hometown of the influential theologian Martin Luther and the place where he died; hence, its official name is Lutherstadt Eisleben. First mentioned in the late 10th century ...

– 12 March 1844,

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

) was a German-born

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 physician. He studied medicine at several universities, earning his medical doctorate at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

in 1802. In 1808, after time spent as a physician in Hasenpoth, he served as a personal physician to Antoinette, Duchess of Württemberg (née Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld) for the next 16 years. During this time period, he traveled extensively throughout Germany and Russia. In St. Petersburg, he became good friends to author

Ernst Moritz Arndt Ernst Moritz Arndt (26 December 1769 – 29 January 1860) was a German nationalist historian, writer and poet. Early in his life, he fought for the abolition of serfdom, later against Napoleonic dominance over Germany. Arndt had to flee to Swed ...

. With Joseph Liboschitz he edited the

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 ...

''Description des Mousses qui croissent aux environs de St. Pétersbourg et de Moscou'' (1811). After the death of the duchess in 1824, he remained in St. Petersburg as an imperial physician, and along with a medical practice, he dealt with botanical concerns at the Academy of Sciences.biography
@

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 ...

From 1829 to 1833, he taught classes in

natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

s to the future Russian monarch, Czar Alexander II. In 1836–1838, he took an extended scientific journey to

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 ...

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, Halle,

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. ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

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 ...

, a trip in which he studied various botanical collections.Drw.saw Leipzig-de
(biography) As a physician, he is known for his

homeopathic Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths or homeopathic physicians, believe that a substance tha ...

approach to medicine (especially after 1830). As a botanist, Trinius was a specialist in

grasses Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in ...

and described many species in his career, including ''

Agrostis pallens ''Agrostis pallens'' is a species of Poaceae, grass known by the common name seashore bentgrass. Distribution It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Montana to California, where it grows in many types of habitat, typicall ...

'', '' Cenchrus agrimonioides'' and '' Festuca subulata''. The genus '' Trinia'' and species '' Trinia glauca'' are named after him. The so-called "Herbarium Trinii" (a collection of roughly 4000-5000 plants) was bequeathed to the botanical museum in St. Petersburg. He was the author of numerous papers in the field of botany. Among his better known publications was "Species graminum, iconibus et descriptionibus illustr." (Vol. I, 1828; Vol. II, 1829; Vol. III, 1836). After his death, a collection of Trinius'

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

was published as ''Gedichte'' ("Poems", Berlin 1848).

References

Karl Antonovich (Carl Bernhard) von Trinius on the Russian Academy of Sciences site.

External links

WorldCat Identities
Publications by Trinius. 19th-century German botanists Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences 1778 births 1844 deaths University of Göttingen alumni People from Eisleben 18th-century German botanists Scientists from the Russian Empire {{Germany-botanist-stub