Karl Julius Perleb (20 June 1794,

Konstanz Konstanz (, , locally: ; also written as Constance in English) is a university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south of Germany. The city houses the University of Konstanz and was ...

– 8 June 1845,

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

) (also known as Carl Julius Perleb) was a German botanist and

natural scientist Natural 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 review and repeatabili ...

Life

From 1809 to 1811, Karl Julius Perleb studied at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württe ...

and earned a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' ...

in philosophy and in 1815 a degree in

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, and Health promotion ...

. He lived in

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

for a brief period of time. In 1818 he returned to the University of Freiburg and began a

post-doctoral A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

ship. He remained at the university for the remainder of his life. He became an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the '' North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is ...

of natural history in 1821, and in 1823 he became a

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

. From 1828 to 1845 he served as director of the Freiburg Botanical Garden. In 1838 he was appointed

prorector Academic rank (also scientific rank) is the rank of a scientist or teacher in a college, high school, university or research establishment. The academic ranks indicate relative importance and power of individuals in academia. The academic ran ...

at Freiburg University. He left his library and

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant 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 sheet of paper (calle ...

to the university, together with money for its administration and for travel grants for young scholars of the natural sciences.ADB:Perleb, Karl Julius
at Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie

Work

Perleb was an author of numerous scientific publications and was a friend of Freiburg historian Heinrich Schreiber. He worked on the natural method of the classification of plants. In 1818 he translated

de Candolle Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candoll ...

's ''Essai sur les propriétés médicales des plantes comparées avec leur classification naturelle'' into German as ''Versuch über die Arzneikräfte der Pflanzen, verglichen mit den äußeren Formen und der natürlichen Classeneintheilung derselben'', with additions and comments. This was followed in 1826 by his ''Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte des Pflanzenreichs'' in which he developed his own classification, based on that of de Candolle, but further developing the idea of a hierarchy in which

orders Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...

were introduced as a rank between

families Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

and classes. He divided de Candolle's

Calyciflorae Calyciflorae is a grouping of plants that is no longer used by botanists. Augustin Pyramus de Candolle defined it as a subclass within the class Dicotyledoneae. It overlapped largely with the modern Rosids group. The group Calyciflorae was define ...

into those with either fused of free

petals Petals are modified leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''corolla''. Petals are usuall ...

and increased his number of subclasses by one. He then developed a key to the diagnostic ranks, updated from the ''Lehrbuch'', his ''Clavis classium, ordinum et familiarum atque index generum regni vegetabilis'' (1838), following the method of

Ray Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gra ...

. In his system, there were 9 classes, 48 orders and 330 families. A second part of the ''Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte'', the ''Lehrbuch der Zoologie'' was published in 1831. He also published an account of the botanical garden at Freiburg, ''De horto botanico Friburgensi'' (1829)

List of selected publications

''Sources''Biodiversity Heritage Library
published works * ''Versuch über die Arzneikräfte der Pflanzen, verglichen mit den äußeren Formen und der natürlichen Classeneintheilung derselben'' (1818) * ''Conspectus methodi plantarum naturalis in usum auditorum typis exscribi curavit'' (1822) * * ''De Horto Botanico Friburgensi'' (1829)
''Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte: Lehrbuch der Zoologie''
(1831–1835) *

Legacy

The botanical genus ''Perlebia'' (synonym ''

Bauhinia ''Bauhinia'' () is a large genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Cercidoideae and tribe Bauhinieae, in the large flowering plant family Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution. The genus was named after the Bauhin brothers Gaspard and ...

'') is named in his honor.

References

Bibliography

*
Bibliography of Karl Julius Perleb, Bayerische StaatsBibliothek

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perleb, Karl Julius 1794 births 1845 deaths 19th-century German botanists University of Freiburg faculty University of Freiburg alumni People from Konstanz