Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach ( 1823 - 1889 )

After John Lindley's death in 1865, Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach became the " Orchid King." Orchid specimens from all over the world were sent to him for identification ,and these , together with his copious notes and drawings , formed an immense herbarium which rivaled that of Lindley's at Kew.

Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach was born at Leipzig ,Germany ,on 3 January 1823, the son of H.G.L. Reichenbach , author of the Icones Forae Germanicae et Helveticae. From the age of eithteen young Reichebach took a great interest in orchids, often in association with John Lindley.

Though best known as an orchidologist , botanist in general owe him a debt of gratitude for his collaboration in his father's Icones. He edited and illustrated the latter volumes of this great work, contributing at least 1500 drawings of his own. The first volume of this extensive publication was , naturally enough , devoted to the orchids of Europe . It bears the title Tentatem Orchidographiae Europeae and is dated 1851.

His graduation essay, published in 1852, was on the origin and structure of orchid pollen. Separate publications included Xenia Orchidaceae , which appeared in occasional volumes from 1851, with about 900 of Reichebach's pencil drawings, Observation on the Orchids of Central America , and the synopsis of orchid lore contained in the sixth volume of Walper's Annales.

In 1863 Reichenbach was appointed to the post of professor of botany and director of the Botanic Gardens at Hamburg University .The duties connected with these posts occupied much of his time, as did the correspondence he carried on with orchid growers both amateur and professional .

Into the university herbarium were deposited all the clippings ,notes, drawings , and scraps of information that reached his hand . Many of the herbarium sheets seemed messy and hapazardly done, without semblance of order. As they were later used in solving problems , however , the scrawly sketches used to clarify the accompanying dried sheets-many made with a few strokes of the pen-demonstrated a particular genius for catching the salient characteristics of the species in a botanially artful shorthand.

Though friendly and helpful , reichenbach's letters were often tinged with wit and sarcasm . It was frequently inferred that he resented the intrusion of others into what he considered his domain. His herbarium was jealously guarded against too great familiarity on the part of the colleagues , and an aura of mystery surrounded its existence . Reichenbach himself , according to an obituary in the Gardener's Chronicle for 18 May 1899,

........was possessed of remarkably distinct individually , which was as remarkable as his curious crabbed handwriting which few could decipher. Short and massive in stature till his recent illness, with a keen penetrating glance and aquiline nose , his features reavealed something of the impetuous temper of the man, and his occasional biting sarcasms . His devotion to Orchids amounted to a consuming passion ; not a scrap , nor a note ,nor a sketch, however rough, came amiss to him if it related to an Orchid. To him meals and clothes were necessary evils , but his herbarium was a prime necessity of existence . The amount of his work was prodigious . Of its quality the botanists of the future will judge better than we.

He was a constant contributor to the Gardener's Chronicle , sending that publication a weekly article on orchids from 1865 until the end of his life. He worked out the Orchidaceae for Seeman's two works , Flora Vitiensis and Botany of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald . He also contributed descriptions of plants of the Orchid Family for the Refugium Botanical from 1869 to 1872. One of his most excellent works, both from a descriptive and esthetic standpoint , was his Reichenbachia , a series of watercolor paintings of orchid issued from 1888 to 1894 . The work was undertaken by Sander's of St. Albans, illustrated largely by H.G. Moon , with plant descriptions by Reichenbach, affter whom it was named .

Reichenbach's nearest approach to a synopsis of the Orchid Family was the sixth volume (1861-1864) of Walper's Annales, where he brought together on nearly 800 pages the species described between 1851 and 1855 , with the addition of several new ones .

Reichenbach was emphatic about the correct identification of orchid species. He thus pronounced:

Authors should do more than secure to themselves the right of priority ....by such incomplete diagnoses. Not only should a careful description be taken , but great care should be taken to help posterity in discriminating the species . Therefore the specimen, or those specimens , which furnished the evidence for the establishment fo the species should be distinctly marked as " the type of my species!" I now always do this in my collection . I regarded this as a fidei commisum for my lifetime that they will have to be distinctly kept within reach of the men of science after my death.

Reichenbach had occasionaly spoken of having his berbarium deposited at Kew after his death , and when that tragic event occurred on 6 May 1889, at Hamburg , Germany , it was anticipated that the Kew Herbarium would soon thereafter be enriched with the Reichenbach collections." It is greatly to be hoped ," stated the Gardeners' Chronicle of 18 May 1889 ," that his immense collections and notes will fall into competent hands (at Kew if possible) , for collation and revision- a task are not only extremely numerous ,but scattered through a wide range of publications in almost all European languages ." It was enigmatic , therefore, that his will stated:

My herbarium and my botanical library , my instruments , collections of seeds, etc., accrue to the imperial Hof Museum in Vienna under the condition that the preserved Orchids and drawings of Orchids shall not be exhibited before twenty -five years from the date of my death have elapsed . Until this time my collection shall be preserved in sealed cases . In the event of the Vienna Institute decline the legacy , then to the Grayean of Upasala . Should the last-mentioned institute decline the legacy , then to the Grayean Herbarium in Harvard University , Cambridge , Massachusetts. If declined by that Institute, then to the Jardin des Planets at Paris , but always under the same conditions, viz., of being sealed up for twenty -five years , in order that the inevitable destruction of the costly collection , resulting from the present craze for Orchids, may be avoided. Great consternation followed , for there seemed to be no reason to deprive the botanical world of his valuable type specmens for a quarter of a century .The terms of the will were respected , however, and the Hof Museum accepted the Reichenbach herbarium and library.

Professor Reichenbach was accorded great international recognition. He was elected a foreign member of the Linnean Society in 1879; was an honorary fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society; was awarded the Veitchain Medal in 1885 on occasion of the First Orchid Conference ; and received a special medal struck in his honor at Ghent , presented by the king of the Belgians in 1888. Moreover , his merits were recognized by numerous orders and distinctions conferred on him by various other governments . He is additionally memorialized in the orchid genus Reichenbachnthus ,and Sievekingia reichenbachiana . Still , the practcality of the man is apparent in his statement alluding to these distinctions :" I cannot eat the honor" .

References

Ames ,Oakes . 1933. Teh Reichenbachian herbarium .Amer. Orch.Soc. Bull. 1,no.4.

Ames , Oakes . 1941. Reichenbachia .Amer.Orch. Soc. Bull. 10 ,no. 5.

Curtis 's Botanical Magazine . 1931. Dedications and Portraits 1827-1927. Nelmes , Ernest, and Cuthbertson, Wm. London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd.

Garden,The . 1905. Death of Prof. Reichenbach. Vol. 35,no. 913.

Gardeners' Chronicle . Prof. H.G. Reichenbach . No. 20 . May 20, 1871.

Gardeners' Chronicle . 1889. The Late Professor Reichenbach. Vol.5, no. 125.

Journal of Botany. Botanical News.Vols. 17-18. 1879-1880.

Journal of Botany. 1889-1890.Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach (1823-1889).Vols. 27-28.

Orchid Album ,The . 1889.Vol. 8 (under pl. 377). London: B.S. Williams .

Orchid Review ,The . 1913. The Reichenbachian Herbarium .Vol. 21, no,.249.

Orchid Review , The . 1917.Professor H.G. Reichenbach .Vol. 25.

White ,C.T. 1940. A History of Australian Orchids. Australian Orch. Rev. 5, no.4 .