Franz Joseph Andreas Nicolaus Unger (30 November 1800 in ''Gut Amthof'' near village

Leutschach Leutschach ( Slovene: ''Lučane'') is a former municipality in the district of Leibnitz in Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the East ...

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

, Austria – 13 February 1870 in

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popu ...

) was an Austrian botanist,

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...

and

plant physiologist Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Closely related fields include plant morphology (structure of plants), plant ecology (interactions with the environment), phytochemistry (bio ...

Life and work

Initially, Unger studied law at the University of Graz. In 1820 he moved to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

to study medicine, in 1822 he enrolled at the

Charles University in Prague ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , undergr ...

. In 1823 Unger returned to Vienna and completed his medical studies in 1827. From 1827 Unger practiced as a doctor in

Stockerau Stockerau () is a town in the district of Korneuburg in Lower Austria, Austria. Stockerau has 15,921 inhabitants, which makes it the largest town in the Weinviertel.https://statistik.at/wcm/idc/idcplg?IdcService=GET_PDF_FILE&RevisionSelectionMetho ...

near Vienna, then from 1830 as a court physician in Kitzbühel,

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

. In 1832, botanists Schott & Endl. published '' Ungeria'' is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

s from

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island (, ; Norfuk: ''Norf'k Ailen'') is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together w ...

belonging to the family

Malvaceae Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include okra, cotton, cacao and durian. There are also some genera containing familiar o ...

. It was named in Franz Unger's honour. In 1836 he was named professor of botany at the University of Graz and also taught at the Joanneum (which became the Universalmuseum Joanneum and the

Graz University of Technology Graz University of Technology (german: link=no, Technische Universität Graz, short ''TU Graz'') is one of five universities in Styria, Austria. It was founded in 1811 by Archduke John of Austria and is the oldest science and technology research ...

); in 1850 professor of plant physiology in Vienna. In 1852 he travelled to Northern Europe and to the

Orient The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of '' Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the ...

. Unger retired in 1866 and lived on his farm near Graz. Unger was one of the major contributors to the field of

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fos ...

, later turning to

plant physiology Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Closely related fields include plant morphology (structure of plants), plant ecology (interactions with the environment), phytochemistry (bi ...

and phytotomy. He hypothesized that (then unknown) combinations of simple elements inside a plant cell determine plant heredity and greatly influenced the experiments of his student Gregor Johann Mendel. Unger was a pioneer in documenting the relationships between soil and plants (1836). Unger is notable for proposing a theory of evolution before

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

. Unger accepted the

transmutation of species Transmutation of species and transformism are unproven 18th and 19th-century evolutionary ideas about the change of one species into another that preceded Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. The French ''Transformisme'' was a term used ...

. During his time his ideas were widely criticized by those who held religious views. In his book ''Attempt of a History of the Plant World'' (1852) he devoted a chapter to the evolution of plants.Mayr, Ernst. (1982). ''The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance''. Belknap Press. p. 390.

Works

* Über den Einfluß des Bodens auf die Verteilung der Gewächse. 1836. * Über den Bau und das Wachstum des Dikotyledonenstamms. 1840. * Über Kristallbildungen in den Pflanzenzellen. 1840. * Grundzüge der Anatomie und Physiologie der Pflanzen. 1846. * Anatomie und Physiologie der Pflanzen. 1855. * Grundlinien der Anatomie und Physiologie der Pflanzen. 1866. * Synopsis plan tarum fossilium. 1845. * Chloris protogaea, Beiträge zur Flora der Vorwelt. 1841–1847. * Genera et species plantarum fossilium. 1850. * Iconographia plantarum fossilium. 1852. * Sylloge plantarum fossilium. 1860. * Die Urwelt in ihren verschiedenen Bildungsperioden. 1851, 3rd edition 1864. (With some of the earliest drawings of prehistoric animals.) * Versuch einer Geschichte der Pflanzenwelt. 1852. * Geologie der europäischen Waldbäume. 1870. * Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse einer Reise in Griechenland und den Ionischen Inseln. 1862. * Die Insel Cypern. 1865. * Botanische Briefe. 1852. * Botanische Streifzüge auf dem Gebiet der Kulturgeschichte.

Sources

* "Dr. Franz Unger", Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Oct., 1870), pp. 227–232
JSTOR link
* German Wikipedia article lists several German language sources.

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unger, Franz 1800 births 1870 deaths People from Leibnitz District Proto-evolutionary biologists 19th-century Austrian botanists Austrian paleontologists University of Graz alumni Academics of the University of Graz University of Vienna alumni Academics of the University of Vienna Charles University alumni Plant physiologists