Christen Smith (botanist)
Encyclopedia
Christen Smith was a Norwegian physician
, economist
and naturalist
, particularly botanist
.
in Drammen
, Norway
. He studied medicine
and botany
at the University of Copenhagen
under professor Martin Vahl
. Together with Jens Wilken Hornemann
, he travelled through large parts of Norway
and made botanical investigations, including collecting plants to be included in the plate work Flora Danica
. Joakim Frederik Schouw
and Morten Wormskjold
were in the company on part of the trip. The party climbed several mountain tops in Jotunheimen
. For some of which it was the first recorded ascent, e.g. Bitihorn
1811 and Hårteigen
1812.
at the newly founded Royal Frederick University
in Christiania (now Oslo)
. However, he never took up the position as he engaged on travels abroad to make contacts and keep abreast of the development of botanical gardens in Europe. His first travels took him to the Scotland
, and from there to London
where he met the Prussia
n geologist Leopold von Buch. Von Buch wished to visit the volcanic islands Canary Islands
and Madeira
and Smith eagerly seized the chance to go on an expedition with the experienced scientist. In 1815 the two embarked on the trip. They returned in 1918, Smith bringing 600 species of plants, where off about 50 were new to science. The best known of Smiths new species is probably the Pinus canariensis, the Canari Island pine.
to find if the Congo River
had any connection to the Niger basins of western and central Africa
. Smith was to function as the expeditions botanist
and geologist
.
The Congo expedition went bad from the start. The original plan was to sail up the river using the expedition ship "HMS Congo
". The Congo had originally been constructed as a steamboat
, a technology that was in its infancy. While the ship was eventually rigged for conventional sails, the heavy construction made it sit deep in the water. And the accompanying lighter vessel "Dorothy" was used, but was stopped by rapids 160 km inland, and the expedition continued on foot up along the Congo through mosquito-infested swamps. The expedition reached 450 kilometre up the river, but lack of food, hostile tribes and ravaging tropical fevers forced the expedition to turn around, without ever finding the proposed connection. On the way downriver, Smith caught a tropical fever and died. 18 of the 56 members of the expedition perished, including all scientists and the captain who died after returning to the ship. The ill-fated expedition was among the inspiration for the Joseph Conrad
s Heart of Darkness
, written almost a century later.
from the trip consisted of 620 species, of which 250 proved to be new to science, but published by other botanists. Several of the text he had left were later published by his friend Martin Richard Flor.
Many species have been named for Smith, e.g. Aeonium smithii Sims (1818) from Tenerife
and the genus
Christiana (Malvaceae
: Brownlowioideae
), detected in Congo
by Christen Smith, and named by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1824 in his Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis
.
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
and naturalist
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, particularly botanist
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
.
Early years
Smith was born at SkogerSkoger
Skoger is a village located on the border between Buskerud and Vestfold counties, Norway. Of its population of 1,082 as of 2005, 654 were registered as residents of Drammen whereas 428 live in Sande in Vestfold county, Norway....
in Drammen
Drammen
Drammen is a city in Buskerud County, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the eastern and most populated part of Norway.-Location:...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. He studied medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
and botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
at the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
under professor Martin Vahl
Martin Vahl
Martin Henrichsen Vahl was a Danish-Norwegian botanist and zoologist.He studied botany in Copenhagen and in Uppsala under Carolus Linnaeus. He edited Flora Danica fasc. XVI-XXI , Symbolæ Botanicæ I-III , Eclogæ Americanæ I-IV and Enumeratio Plantarum I-II...
. Together with Jens Wilken Hornemann
Jens Wilken Hornemann
Jens Wilken Hornemann was a Danish botanist.-Biography:He was a lecturer at the University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden from 1801. After the death of Martin Vahl in 1804, the task of publishing the Flora Danica was given to Hornemann, who subsequently issued fasc. 22-39 with a total of 1080...
, he travelled through large parts of Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and made botanical investigations, including collecting plants to be included in the plate work Flora Danica
Flora Danica
A product of The Age of Enlightenment, Flora Danica is a comprehensive atlas of botany, containing folio-sized pictures of all the wild plants native to Denmark, in the period from 1761-1883....
. Joakim Frederik Schouw
Joakim Frederik Schouw
Joakim Frederik Schouw was a Danish lawyer, botanist and politician. From 1821, professor in botany at the University of Copenhagen - first extraordinary professor, but after the death of J.W. Hornemann in 1841 ordinary...
and Morten Wormskjold
Morten Wormskjold
Morten Wormskjold was a Danish botanist and explorer. He collected plants in Greenland and Kamchatka.- Early life :...
were in the company on part of the trip. The party climbed several mountain tops in Jotunheimen
Jotunheimen
Jotunheimen is a mountainous area of roughly 3,500 km² in Southern Norway and is part of the long range known as the Scandinavian Mountains. The 29 highest mountains in Norway are all in Jotunheimen, including the very highest - Galdhøpiggen...
. For some of which it was the first recorded ascent, e.g. Bitihorn
Bitihorn
Bitihorn is a mountain in the southernmost outskirts of Jotunheimen, Norway. It is situated due west of national route 51, and is therefore a landmark for tourists following that popular route.- Geology :...
1811 and Hårteigen
Hårteigen
Hårteigen is a characteristic mountain in Hordaland, Norway. It sits on and is visible from most parts of Hardangervidda.-The name:The first element is from Norse hárr 'grey', the last element is related to the German verb zeigen 'show'. On the large and flat plateau of Hardangervidda this mountain...
1812.
The Canari and Madeira expeditions
In 1808, Smith graduated and started to practice medicine in Norway. In 1814, he was appointed professor of national economy and botanyBotany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
at the newly founded Royal Frederick University
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
in Christiania (now Oslo)
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
. However, he never took up the position as he engaged on travels abroad to make contacts and keep abreast of the development of botanical gardens in Europe. His first travels took him to the Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, and from there to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
where he met the Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n geologist Leopold von Buch. Von Buch wished to visit the volcanic islands Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
and Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
and Smith eagerly seized the chance to go on an expedition with the experienced scientist. In 1815 the two embarked on the trip. They returned in 1918, Smith bringing 600 species of plants, where off about 50 were new to science. The best known of Smiths new species is probably the Pinus canariensis, the Canari Island pine.
Death on the Congo
Having learned geology from von Buch in addition to finding new plant species, he was approached by Royal Society of London and asked to partake on a scientific expedition under captain James Kingston TuckeyJames Kingston Tuckey
James Hingston Tuckey was an Irish-born British explorer and a captain in the Royal Navy. Some references refer to him as James Kingston Tuckey....
to find if the Congo River
Congo River
The Congo River is a river in Africa, and is the deepest river in the world, with measured depths in excess of . It is the second largest river in the world by volume of water discharged, though it has only one-fifth the volume of the world's largest river, the Amazon...
had any connection to the Niger basins of western and central Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. Smith was to function as the expeditions botanist
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
and geologist
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
.
The Congo expedition went bad from the start. The original plan was to sail up the river using the expedition ship "HMS Congo
HMS Congo (1816)
HMS Congo was the first steam-powered warship built for the Royal Navy. She was classified as a steam sloop and was built in 1816 at Deptford Dockyard specifically for an exploration of the Congo River...
". The Congo had originally been constructed as a steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
, a technology that was in its infancy. While the ship was eventually rigged for conventional sails, the heavy construction made it sit deep in the water. And the accompanying lighter vessel "Dorothy" was used, but was stopped by rapids 160 km inland, and the expedition continued on foot up along the Congo through mosquito-infested swamps. The expedition reached 450 kilometre up the river, but lack of food, hostile tribes and ravaging tropical fevers forced the expedition to turn around, without ever finding the proposed connection. On the way downriver, Smith caught a tropical fever and died. 18 of the 56 members of the expedition perished, including all scientists and the captain who died after returning to the ship. The ill-fated expedition was among the inspiration for the Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
s Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1903 publication, it appeared as a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine. It was classified by the Modern Library website editors as one of the "100 best novels" and part of the Western canon.The story centres on Charles...
, written almost a century later.
Smiths legacy
Before succumbing to the fever, captain Tuckey made sure Smiths diary and plant collections were brought back to London. His herbariumHerbarium
In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...
from the trip consisted of 620 species, of which 250 proved to be new to science, but published by other botanists. Several of the text he had left were later published by his friend Martin Richard Flor.
Many species have been named for Smith, e.g. Aeonium smithii Sims (1818) from Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
and the genus
Christiana (Malvaceae
Malvaceae
Malvaceae, or the mallow family, is a family of flowering plants containing over 200 genera with close to 2,300 species. Judd & al. Well known members of this family include okra, jute and cacao...
: Brownlowioideae
Brownlowioideae
Brownlowioideae is a subfamily of the botanical family Malvaceae. The genera in this subfamily used to be a part of the paraphyletic Tiliaceae until taxonomic revisions in part by the APG II system....
), detected in Congo
Congo River
The Congo River is a river in Africa, and is the deepest river in the world, with measured depths in excess of . It is the second largest river in the world by volume of water discharged, though it has only one-fifth the volume of the world's largest river, the Amazon...
by Christen Smith, and named by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1824 in his Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis
Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis
Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis, also known by its standard botanical abbreviation Prodr. , is a 17-volume treatise on botany initiated by A. P. de Candolle. De Candolle intended it as a summary of all known seed plants, encompassing taxonomy, ecology, evolution and biogeography....
.
See also
- Observations, systematical and geographical, on the herbarium collected by Professor Christian Smith, in the vicinity of the Congo