Josef Franz Freyn (7 December 1845,

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

– 16 January 1903, Prague-

Smíchov Smíchov () is, since 1922, a district and cadastral area of Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, and is part of Prague 5. It is on the west bank of the Vltava river. History It was only on 22 February 1903, that Smíchov was elevated to ...

) was an Austrian civil engineer and

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 ...

. He was the son of the Austrian forester Josef Freyn from Obecnic. In 1856-1862 he attended the ''Oberrealschule'' in Prague. After that, he studied at the technical Polytechnic (''technische Hochschule'') in Prague, but interrupted his study for a placement in forestry. In 1865-1867 he studied engineering at the technical Polytechnic (''technische Hochschule'') 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. ...

. Afterwards he was employed in the construction of railways in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

and later worked in

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; ; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian: ; ; ) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. Located at th ...

(1874–1878), and in the meantime conducted investigations of regional flora. In 1878 he relocated to

Opočno Opočno (; ) is a town in Rychnov nad Kněžnou District in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,100 inhabitants. Opočno is known for the Opočno Castle, one of the most magnificent examples of Czech Renaissance archi ...

, later returning to Prague (1881), where he owned a construction company.Archive.org
Full text of "Taxonomic literature] a selective guide to botanical publications and collections with dates, commentaries and types".NDB/ADB Deutsche Biographie
/ref> As a botanist Freyn was self-taught — he reportedly never attended a formal lecture on botany. In addition to research of Hungarian and Istrian flora, he processed botanical collections from the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

Bosnia-Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to the north a ...

Turkestan Turkestan,; ; ; ; also spelled Turkistan, is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and East Turkestan (Xinjiang). The region is located in the northwest of modern day China and to the northwest of its ...

et al. He acted as an intermediator to the plant collector Ferdynand Karo and supported him with the curation, identification and the distribution of his plant material in

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 specimen sets under the title ''F. Karo Plantae Dahuricae''. As a botanical collector he collaborated with

Joseph Friedrich Nicolaus Bornmüller Joseph Friedrich Nicolaus Bornmüller (February 6, 1862 – December 19, 1948) was a German botanist born in Hildburghausen, Thuringia. Biography He studied horticulture in Potsdam, and in 1886 traveled to the Balkans and Greece on his first bo ...

Eduard Hackel Eduard Hackel (17 March 1850 in Haida, Bohemia – 2 February 1926 in Attersee, Upper Austria) was an Austrian botanist. His father was a veterinarian in Haida (now Nový Bor) in Bohemia. He was married and had one son. Hackel studied at the P ...

Paul Sintenis Paul Ernst Emil Sintenis (4 April 1847 Seidenberg, Oberlausitz, Prussia – 6 March 1907) was a German botanist, pharmacist and important plant collector. Biography He studied at the gymnasium in Görlitz, became a pharmacist's apprentice in ...

. and J. J. Manissadijan Freyn is remembered for his specialized studies of individual plant species, especially those within the genera ''

Ranunculus ''Ranunculus'' is a large genus of about 1750 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots. The genus is distributed worldwide, primarily in temperate an ...

'' and ''

Hieracium ''Hieracium'' (), known by the common name hawkweed and classically as (from ancient Greek ἱέραξ, 'hawk'), is a genus of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, and closely related to dandelion (''Taraxacum''), chicory (''Cichorium''), ...

''. An obituary was published by Eduard Hackel.

Selected publications

* ''Die Flora von Süd-Istrien'', 1878 - Flora of southern Istria. * ''Beitrag zur Flora von Bosnien und der angrenzenden Hercegovina''. 1888 - Contributions involving the flora of

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

and in particular

Herzegovina Herzegovina ( or ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Hercegovina, separator=" / ", Херцеговина, ) is the southern and smaller of two main geographical Regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Bosnia (reg ...

. * ''Zur Kenntniss einiger Arten der Gattung Ranunculus'', 1881 - Treatise on species of the genus

. * ''Ueber neue und bemerkenswerthe orientalische Pflanzenarten, 3'', Bulletin de l'Herbier Boissier 6(11), 1898 - On new and remarkable Oriental plant species. * "Plantae ex Asia media (Fragmentum): Enumeratio plantarum in Turania a Cl. Sintensis ann. 1900-1901 lectarum, additis quibusdam in regione Caspica, Transcaspica, Turkestanica, praesertim in Altiplanite Pamir a cl. Ove Paulsen ann. 1898-1899 aliisque in Turkestania a V. F. Brotherus ann. 1896 lectis"; publisher: Genève : Imprimerie Romet, (1906).WorldCat Search
(publications) * Plantae novae Orientales. Österreichische botanische Zeitschrift 1894, 324-327.

References

External links

IPNI
List of plants described and co-described by Freyn. {{DEFAULTSORT:Freyn, Josef Franz 19th-century Austrian botanists Engineers from Austria-Hungary Botanists from Austria-Hungary Austrian civil engineers Czech Technical University in Prague alumni TU Wien alumni 1845 births 1903 deaths Scientists from Prague