Friedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter ( 1872 - 1925 )

" Without a good memory it is of no use trying to be a botanist ; one had better give it up and be a merchant ." Rather a discouraging and outspoken statement ,by most standards ,yet extremely characteristic of the egoistic self -confidence of the great orhidologist, Friedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter- a man of driving ambition , great capacity for work , and a remarkable memory .

Schlechter was born in Berlin, Germany ,on 16 October 1872 . As a youth he served an apprenticeship as a horiticulturist , and at niniteen years of age he left Europe for the beginning of botanical explorations that carried him to Africa in 1891 and later to Sumatra , Java , Celebes , Borneo ,New Guinea , the Bismarch Archipelago ,and Australia . For Nineteen Years after he was continually in foreing lands, collecting botanical specimens and acquiring a constantly expanding knowledge of orchids in their native habitats.

Extensive trips were made to south tropical Africa (including the Yoruba country , the Cameroons and Togoland ) in 1895- 1898 as leader of an expedition for the German Colonial Department to investigate the caoutchouc industry . In the summer of 1895 he worked for several weeks in the Department of Botany at the British Museum , having just returned from South Africa . He had made extensive collections there, particularly asclepiads and orchids, and it was chiefly these that he studied during his saty in London. As a result of the expedition ,the botanical appendix to his Westafrikanische Kautschuk-Expedition (1899-1900) contained the names of many new plant species .

In 1901-1902 he appeared in German New Guinea ,and again visited there in 1906 -1909. Though most of his time was absobed by economic matters , he made it a point to find some for collecting and studying orchids, with the result that whereas ninety species belonging to thirtytwo total up to the surprising figure of 1450 species ( 1102 of which were new) representing 116 genera .Die Orchidaceen von Deutsch -Neu Guinea , the important work stemming from his introductions and discoveries , was published as a large volume of over 1100 pages in 1911-1914 .

Schelchter also botanized in New Caledonia (1902-1903) and the results of his collections were published in Engler's Bot .Jabrb., volumes 36 and 39 in which he again specialized in the Orchidaceae . A few years later Die Orchideenfloren der sudamerikanischen Kordilleranstaaten made its appearance.

Between collecting trips Schlechter continued his visits to London, stopping in always at the Kew and the British Museum . He was considered an interesting figure ,but being no respector of persons or things, he was apt to trod on other people's feelings and sensibilities . He was dogmatic in his convictions , a characterstic which did not assist in making him popular ; but on the basis of his achievements and experience ,he was accorded great respect .

Throughout his career Schlechter was occupied with the publication of the results of his indefatigable research , and at an early period he set for himself the ambition of describing at least one new species each day . That ambition may have been achieved ; it was estimated that he proposed in excess of 1000 new species of orchids alone. Simutaneous with the publication of the results of his findings ,and beginning in 1893,his published contributions to systematic botany appeared with reularity each reamining yeat of his life . In those years he produced more than 300 individual papers .His contributions to horticulture and orchidology.

Before World War I he married and settled in Berlin , where he took his Ph.D. and served as a curator in the Botanical Museum at Dahlem . There he continued his taxonomic work in a large ,well-lighted room, surrounded by his cases of herbarium material he had brought with him in 1913 . He devoted himself primarily to the orchids of both the Old and New World , including enumerations of those of the Chinese-Japanese regions and various parts of tropical America ,and published as Beihefte of Fedde's Repertorium .

Schlechter died at only fifty -three years of age. His untimely death on 16 November 1925 , at Berlin -Schoneberg ,was thought to have been due to the lingering effects of diseases contracted in the eastern tropics . His name lived on , however, through the many species that bore his name , plus the genera Schlecteria of the Cruciferae ,Schlecterella of the Asclepiadaceae ,and Schlecterina of the Passiflora. The orchid genus Schlecteriella was named and dedicated to his memory by the Brazilian orchidologist F. Hoehne in 1944, and he is further commemorated by Epidendrum schlechterianum ,Gastrorchis schlechterii ,and Goodyera Schlechterii.

The immense collections made by Schlechter were placed in the Botanical Museum at Dahlem ,where they continued to grow , becoming one of the finest definitive herbaria of the world . Disaster struck in the form of World war II ,however ,when on the night of 1 March 1943 the museum was bombed and the thousands of critical specimens and notes destroyed .The following year Oakes Ames ,Another great orchidologist who had known Schlechter ,wrote from Harvard University :

Now that the collection on which a large part of Schelchterl' s life work rested has been dissipated and now that the main grounwork of his prolific writings has been destroyed , it may be of interest to readers of the (American Orchid Society) Bulletin to know what evidence remains to interpret his conclusions and to measure the accuracy and dependableness of his deduction .

Nearly half a century ago my acquaintance with Schlechter's life work rested has been dissipated and now that the main ground work of his prolific writings has been destroyed , it may be of interest to readers of the (American Orchid Society )Bulletin to know what evidence reamins to interpret his conclusions and to measure the accuracy and dependableness of his deduction.

Nearly half a century ago my acquaintance with Schlechter began and toward the end of his life- he died in 1925 -we were working together on a monographic treatment of the orchids of the world . As we did not meet until August , 1922,our assosiation up to that time was through a copious correspondence and through the exchange of orchid specimens. Dr. Schlechter always made helpful analytical sketches of the species he studied and at my request an artist was employed to make for me not only copies of these sketches but tracings from the type specimens on which they were based. After his death his wife,Alexandra Schlechter , continued to have drawings made for me so that in time my herbarium contained a useful record of a large number of Schlechter's types with emphasis on the records of Middle America .

In the Bulletin from tiem to time , references have been made to the C.W. Powell orchid garden in the Canal Zone . Powell was deeply interested in the orchids of Panama and in his efforts to identify them he sent specimens to R.A. Rolfe at Kew . Rolfe was hesitant about supplying names because of his inability to interpret with certainty many of the Central American species which Reichenbach had descibed and at this time he was unable to consult the Reichenbach Herbarium in Vienna . Then Powell turned a Schlechter for aid and Schlechter published liberally the results of his research . Many new species were recognized and a very important paper devoted to Powell's orchids appeared in a German publication . Fortunately Powell made herbarium have a complete series of the identical plants which Schlechter described . Furthermore , this representation of Powell's collection is re-inforced by sketches and tracings based on Schlechter 's types.

We may say, then , that the loss of Schlechter's herbarium , while irreparable and tragic , is softened by the splendid record now available at Harvard University .

References

Ames ,Oakes . 1944 . Destruction of the schlechter Herbarium by Bombing . Amer. Orch .Soc .Bull . 13 ,no.4.

Ames , Oakes . 1933. Friedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter -1872-1925.Amer . OrchSoc. Bull. 2, no.2.

Van Steenis ,C.G.G.J 1950,Cyclopaedia of Collectors . Flora Malesiana .Vol 1 ,ser.1.