Robert Keller (24 September 1854 – 8 July 1939) was a Swiss botanist from Oberembrach, a village near

Winterthur Winterthur (; ) is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. With over 120,000 residents, it is the country's List of cities in Switzerland, sixth-largest city by population, as well as its ninth-largest agglomeration with about 14 ...

. In 1877 he obtained his doctorate from the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The university was established in 1558 and is cou ...

, subsequently working as a teacher in the education sector of

; initially at the ''Mädchenschule'', then from 1880 at the gymnasium and afterwards at its industrial school. From 1891 to 1916, he was rector of municipal schools. In Winterthur, he strove for various educational reforms, and was

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

of the city's

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 ...

collections. As a botanist, his primary research dealt with

plant systematics The history of plant systematics—the biological classification of plants—stretches from the work of ancient Greek to modern evolutionary biologists. As a field of science, plant systematics came into being only slowly, early plant lore usuall ...

and

floristics Floristics is the study of plants of geographical regions. It is a branch of phytogeography, which technically makes it a branch of botany, geography, and a subbranch of biogeography. Harvard University has a history of research with early contr ...

.Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz
(biography) The species, ''

Schizachyrium ''Schizachyrium'' is a widespread genus of plants in the grass family. The name is derived from the Ancient Greek words (), meaning "to split," and (), meaning "chaff." It refers to either the glume or the toothed lemmas. In the United State ...

kelleri'' is one of the plants that bears his name; its botanical authors being

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 ...

(1850–1926) and Otto Stapf (1857–1933).

Selected publications

* ''Flora von Winterthur'' 1891-1896 – Flora of Winterthur. * ''Flora der Schweiz'' (four editions, with

Hans Schinz Hans Schinz (6 December 1858 – 30 October 1941) was a Swiss explorer and botanist who was a native of Zürich. In 1884 he participated in an exploratory expedition to German Southwest Africa that was organized by German merchant Adolf Lüd ...

1858–1941); 1900-1923 – Flora of Switzerland. * ''Übersicht über die Schweiz. Rubi'' 1919 – treatise on

blackberries BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

of Switzerland. * ''Synopsis rosarum spontanearum Europae mediae'' 1931 – treatise on wild roses. ---- In 1894, Keller edited and distributed 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 ...

-like specimen series ''Herbarium normale rosarum Europaearum''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keller, Robert 1854 births 1939 deaths University of Jena alumni 19th-century Swiss botanists Swiss schoolteachers People from Winterthur 20th-century Swiss botanists